Flood Risk and Preventive Choices: A Framework for Studying Human Behaviors.

The topic of flood phenomena has always been of considerable importance due to the high risks it entails, both in terms of potential economic and social damage and the jeopardizing of human lives themselves. The spread of climate change is making this topic even more relevant. This work aims to contribute to evaluating the role that human factors can play in responding to critical hydrogeological phenomena.

Exposure to urban and rural contexts shapes smartphone usage behavior.

Smartphones have profoundly changed human life. Nevertheless, the factors that shape how we use our smartphones remain unclear, in part due to limited availability of usage-data. Here, we investigate the impact of a key environmental factor: users' exposure to urban and rural contexts.

The Role of Trust in COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance: Considerations from a Systematic Review.

The goal of this research was to provide an overview of the role of trust in determining COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. Trust proved to be a key issue in all the strategic phases of the pandemic, a decisive element for the success of the worldwide vaccination campaign. By introducing a comprehensive systematic review of the state-of-the-art (N = 43), we intend to shed light on the various forms of trust that have been considered and how these relate to citizens’ vaccine acceptance.

Trusting COVID-19 vaccines as individual and social goal.

Trust in vaccines and in the institutions responsible for their management is a key asset in the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. By means of a structured multi-scales survey based on the socio-cognitive model of trust, this study investigates the interplay of institutional trust, confidence in COVID-19 vaccines, information habits, personal motivations, and background beliefs on the pandemic in determining willingness to vaccinate in a sample of Italian respondents (N = 4096). We observe substantial trust in public institutions and a strong vaccination intention.

Thermal Debridement in the Management of Low Grade Scapholunate Ligament Tears.

Low grade scapholunate interosseous ligament (SLIL) tears are often managed with mechanical or thermal arthroscopic debridement, although this remains controversial. This study aimed to assess the short-term outcomes of thermal debride- ment of low-grade SLIL tears. Patients with low grade SLIL tears who underwent arthroscopic thermal debridement between 2010 and 2017 were identified and divided into two groups: isolated thermal debridement and concomitant pro- cedures.

Postoperative Inpatient Conversions Following Ambulatory Orthopedic Surgery.

Background: Despite the recent trend toward outpatient orthopedic surgical procedures, there are patients who incur unanticipated conversions to inpatient status either immediately following ambulatory surgery or within days to weeks via presentation to the emergency department. The purpose of this study was to examine characteristics, co-morbidities, and causes of admissions in these populations in order to help identify factors for which strategies can be developed in order to minimize unanticipated admissions and medical costs.

Methods: Using a major academic medical center's bill-ing department's database, 95 outpatients were identified who were immediately converted into inpatient status and another 84 outpatients who were admitted within 30 days of surgery.

All We Need Is Trust: How the COVID-19 Outbreak Reconfigured Trust in Italian Public Institutions.

The central focus of this research is the fast and crucial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on a crucial psychological, relational, and political construct: trust. We investigate how the consequences of the pandemic, in terms of healthcare, state intervention and impositions, and daily life and habits, have affected trust in public institutions in Italy, at the time when the contagion was rapidly spreading in the country (early March 2020). In this survey, addressed to 4260 Italian citizens, we analyzed and measured such impact, focusing on various aspects of trust.

Rational design of a robust aluminum metal-organic framework for multi-purpose water-sorption-driven heat allocations.

Adsorption-driven heat transfer technology using water as working fluid is a promising eco-friendly strategy to address the exponential increase of global energy demands for cooling and heating purposes. Here we present the water sorption properties of a porous aluminum carboxylate metal-organic framework, [Al(OH)(CHNO)]·nHO, KMF-1, discovered by a joint computational predictive and experimental approaches, which exhibits step-like sorption isotherms, record volumetric working capacity (0.36 mL mL) and specific energy capacity (263 kWh m) under cooling working conditions, very high coefficient of performances of 0.

How COVID-19 Changed the Information Needs of Italian Citizens.

Italy was the first European country to be affected by COVID-19, facing an unprecedented situation. The reaction required drastic solutions and highly restrictive measures, which severely tested the trust of the Italian people. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of the introduced measures was not only linked to political decisions, but also to the choice of the Italian people to trust and rely on institutions, accepting such necessary measures.

Glaucoma: A Degenerative Optic Neuropathy Related to Neuroinflammation?

Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of irreversible blindness in the world and remains a major public health problem. To date, incomplete knowledge of this disease's pathophysiology has resulted in current therapies (pharmaceutical or surgical) unfortunately having only a slowing effect on disease progression. Recent research suggests that glaucomatous optic neuropathy is a disease that shares common neuroinflammatory mechanisms with "classical" neurodegenerative pathologies.

Tourniquet Use for Short Hand Surgery Procedures Done Under Local Anesthesia Without Epinephrine.

Purpose: Wide-awake local anesthesia no tourniquet (WALANT) is an increasingly popular surgical technique. However, owing to surgeon preference, patient factors, or hospital guidelines, it may not be feasible to inject patients with solutions containing epinephrine the recommended 25 minutes prior to incision. The purpose of this study was to assess pain and patient experience after short hand surgeries done under local anesthesia using a tourniquet rather than epinephrine for hemostasis.

Musculoskeletal Injuries in Yoga.

While yoga has been widely studied for its benefits to many health conditions, little research has been performed on the nature of musculoskeletal injuries occurring during yoga practice. Yoga is considered to be generally safe, however, injury can occur in nearly any part of the body-especially the neck, shoulders, lumbar spine, hamstrings, and knees. As broad interest in yoga grows, so will the number of patients presenting with yoga-related injuries.

Deep Neural Networks for Optimal Team Composition.

Cooperation is a fundamental social mechanism, whose effects on human performance have been investigated in several environments. Online games are modern-days natural settings in which cooperation strongly affects human behavior. Every day, millions of players connect and play together in team-based games: the patterns of cooperation can either foster or hinder individual skill learning and performance.

Estimating the outcome of spreading processes on networks with incomplete information: A dimensionality reduction approach.

Recent advances in data collection have facilitated the access to time-resolved human proximity data that can conveniently be represented as temporal networks of contacts between individuals. While the structural and dynamical information revealed by this type of data is fundamental to investigate how information or diseases propagate in a population, data often suffer from incompleteness, which possibly leads to biased estimations in data-driven models. A major challenge is thus to estimate the outcome of spreading processes occurring on temporal networks built from partial information.

Individual performance in team-based online games.

Complex real-world challenges are often solved through teamwork. Of special interest are ad hoc teams assembled to complete some task. Many popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video-games adopt this team formation strategy and thus provide a natural environment to study ad hoc teams.

Extracting the multi-timescale activity patterns of online financial markets.

Online financial markets can be represented as complex systems where trading dynamics can be captured and characterized at different resolutions and time scales. In this work, we develop a methodology based on non-negative tensor factorization (NTF) aimed at extracting and revealing the multi-timescale trading dynamics governing online financial systems. We demonstrate the advantage of our strategy first using synthetic data, and then on real-world data capturing all interbank transactions (over a million) occurred in an Italian online financial market (e-MID) between 2001 and 2015.

Assessment of Pronator Quadratus Repair Integrity Using Dynamic Ultrasonography Following Volar Plate Fixation for Distal Radius Fractures.

Previous work evaluating the pronator quadratus (PQ) muscle following volar plate fixation (VPF) of distal radius fractures (DRF) suggests that PQ repair often fails in the postoperative period. The purpose of this investigation was to assess PQ repair integrity following VPF of DRF using dynamic musculoskeletal ultrasonography. Twenty adult patients who underwent VPF of DRF with repair of the PQ with a minimum follow-up of 3 months underwent bilateral dynamic wrist ultrasonography.

Adsorption Heat Storage: State-of-the-Art and Future Perspectives.

Thermal energy storage (TES) is a key technology to enhance the efficiency of energy systems as well as to increase the share of renewable energies. In this context, the present paper reports a literature review of the recent advancement in the field of adsorption TES systems. After an initial introduction concerning different heat storage technologies, the working principle of the adsorption TES is explained and compared to other technologies.

Bone Graft Options in Upper-Extremity Surgery.

Bone grafting in the upper extremity is an important consideration in patients with injuries or conditions resulting in missing bone stock. A variety of indications can necessitate bone grafting in the upper extremity, including fractures with acute bone loss, nonunions, malunions, bony lesions, and bone loss after osteomyelitis. Selecting the appropriate bone graft option for the specific consideration is important to ensure optimal patient outcomes.

Scaphoid Nonunions.

Scaphoid nonunions are challenging injuries to manage and the optimal treatment algorithm continues to be debated. Most scaphoid fractures heal when appropriately treated; however, when nonunions occur, they require acute treatment to prevent future complications like scaphoid nonunion advanced collapse. Acute nonunion treatment technique depends on nonunion location, vascular status of the proximal pole, fracture malalignment, and pre-existing evidence of arthrosis.

Flexor Tendon Injuries.

Flexor tendon injuries of the hand are uncommon, and they are among the most challenging orthopaedic injuries to manage. Proper management is essential to ensure optimal outcomes. Consistent, successful management of flexor tendon injuries relies on understanding the anatomy, characteristics and repair of tendons in the different zones, potential complications, rehabilitation protocols, recent advances in treatment, and future directions, including tissue engineering and biologic modification of the repair site.

Management of Pisotriquetral Instability.

Pisotriquetral instability is an often-overlooked condition that can lead to ulnar-sided wrist pain and dysfunction. Various case series and biomechanical studies have been published regarding the diagnosis and treatment of this condition. We review current methods for examining, diagnosing, and treating pisotriquetral instability.

Scaphoid Healing Required for Unrestricted Activity: A Biomechanical Cadaver Model.

Purpose: To determine if scaphoid fractures with bridging bone of 50% of their width treated with a centrally placed screw will restore biomechanical integrity equivalent to that of the intact scaphoid.

Methods: Twenty-four fresh cadaver scaphoids were used. Six were left intact to serve as the control group.

The Relationships Between Surface Measurements and Underlying Tendon Autograft Length for Upper Extremity Reconstructive Surgery.

Purpose: The availability of tendon grafts is an important consideration for successful upper extremity reconstructive surgery, including flexor or extensor tendon reconstructions, tendon transfers, and ligament reconstructions. Graft selection is based on availability, expendability, ease of harvest, and length. Given variations in patient height and extremity length, existing average values may provide suboptimal insight into actual tendon lengths available.