Evidence for telemedicine heterogeneity in rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases care: a scoping review.

Telemedicine and digital health represent alternative approaches for clinical practice; indeed, its potential in healthcare services for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and disease monitoring is widely acknowledged. These are all crucial issues to consider when dealing with chronic Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases (RMDs). The aim was to determine the current state of telemedicine in the field of rheumatology, considering the tools and devices in use as well as the Patient Reported Outcomes.

Evaluation of Biofilm Production and Antifungal Susceptibility to Fluconazole in Clinical Isolates of spp. in Both Planktonic and Biofilm Form.

spp. are an important opportunistic pathogen that can represent a possible cause of severe infections, especially in immunocompromised individuals. The clinical impact of spp.

Descending necrotizing mediastinitis caused by retro-pharyngeal infection.

Introduction: , a non-spore-forming anaerobic Gram-positive bacillus component of the human fecal microbiota has rarely been reported in human diseases. In almost every case described in current literature to date, dental diseases (abscesses, periodontitis, or caries), are the most common source of the infection which extends to the brain, cervical spaces, pulmonary parenchyma, the pleural cavity, the abdominal wall, and the abdominal cavity.

Case Report: An 82-year-old male Caucasian patient was admitted to our Emergency Department (ED) with a painless, right submandibular mass, dyspnea, and inspiratory stridor.

Analysing the Impact on Health and Environment from Biogas Production Process and Biomass Combustion: A Scoping Review.

The increasing demand for renewable energy production entails the development of novel green technologies, among them the use of biomass for energy generation. Industrial processes raise new issues regarding emerging risks for the health of people working in biogas plants and of nearby communities. The potential epidemiological and environmental impacts on human health related to biogas plants were assessed by means of a review of the available literature.

Biotic resistance of native fouling communities to bioinvasions could not be demonstrated by transplant experiments in Northern Italy.

Biotic resistance is considered an important driver in the establishment of non-indigenous species (NIS), but experiments in the marine environment have led to contradictory results. In this context, a transplant experiment of fouling communities was carried out over five months. Settlement panels were moved from low impact (species-rich native communities) to high impact sites by NIS in two Italian areas to test the biotic resistance hypothesis.

Infectious Endometritis in Mares: Microbiological Findings in Field Samples.

Endometritis is a major cause of infertility and subfertility in the mare. Early diagnosis and identification of the pathogens involved in infectious endometritis are crucial to initiate correct treatments in time, in order to optimize fertility and reduce the risk of bacterial resistance development. In this retrospective study (from 2014 to 2018), 394 samples (uterine swabs and lavages) obtained from mares before breeding, regardless of clinical history of endometritis were analyzed.

Geological surface reconstruction from 3D point clouds.

The numerical simulation of phenomena such as subsurface fluid flow or rock deformations are based on geological models, where volumes are typically defined through stratigraphic surfaces and faults, which constitute the geometric constraints, and then discretized into blocks to which relevant petrophysical or stress-strain properties are assigned. This paper illustrates the process by which it is possible to reconstruct the triangulation of 3D geological surfaces assigned as point clouds. These geological surfaces can then be used in codes dedicated to volume discretization to generate models of underground rocks.

Extremely Dense Gamma-Ray Pulses in Electron Beam-Multifoil Collisions.

Sources of high-energy photons have important applications in almost all areas of research. However, the photon flux and intensity of existing sources is strongly limited for photon energies above a few hundred keV. Here we show that a high-current ultrarelativistic electron beam interacting with multiple submicrometer-thick conducting foils can undergo strong self-focusing accompanied by efficient emission of gamma-ray synchrotron photons.

Testing Strong Field QED Close to the Fully Nonperturbative Regime Using Aligned Crystals.

Processes occurring in the strong field regime of QED are characterized by background electromagnetic fields of the order of the critical field F_{cr}=m^{2}c^{3}/ℏ|e| in the rest frame of participating charges. It has been conjectured that if in their rest frame electrons and positrons experience field strengths of the order of F_{cr}/α^{3/2}≈1600F_{cr}, with α≈1/137 being the fine-structure constant, their effective coupling with radiation becomes of the order of unity. Here we show that channeling radiation by ultrarelativistic electrons with energies of the order of a few TeV on thin tungsten crystals allows us to test the predictions of QED close to this fully nonperturbative regime by measuring the angularly resolved single photon intensity spectrum.

Cetuximab, irinotecan and fluorouracile in fiRst-line treatment of immunologically-selected advanced colorectal cancer patients: the CIFRA study protocol.

Background: Combination of chemotherapies (fluoropirimidines, oxaliplatin and irinotecan) with biologic drugs (bevacizumab, panitumumab, cetuximab) have improved clinical responses and survival of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). However, patients' selection thorough the identification of predictive factors still represent a challange. Cetuximab (Erbitux®), a chimeric monoclonal antibody binding to the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR), belongs to the Immunoglobulins (Ig) grade 1 subclass able to elicite both in vitro and in vivo the Antibody-Dependent Cell-mediated Cytotoxicity (ADCC).

Polarized Laser-WakeField-Accelerated Kiloampere Electron Beams.

High-flux polarized particle beams are of critical importance for the investigation of spin-dependent processes, such as in searches of physics beyond the standard model, as well as for scrutinizing the structure of solids and surfaces in material science. Here we demonstrate that kiloampere polarized electron beams can be produced via laser-wakefield acceleration from a gas target. A simple theoretical model for determining the electron beam polarization is presented and supported with self-consistent three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations that incorporate the spin dynamics.

Laser-pulse-shape control of seeded QED cascades.

QED cascades are complex avalanche processes of hard photon emission and electron-positron pair creation driven by ultrastrong electromagnetic fields. They play a fundamental role in astrophysical environments such as a pulsars' magnetosphere, rendering an earth-based implementation with intense lasers attractive. In the literature, QED cascades were also predicted to limit the attainable intensity in a set-up of colliding laser beams in a tenuous gas such as the residual gas of a vacuum chamber, therefore severely hindering experiments at extreme field intensities.

Ease-of-use protocol for the rapid detection of third-generation cephalosporin resistance in Enterobacteriaceae isolated from blood cultures using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

An ease-of-use protocol for the identification of resistance against third-generation cephalosporins in Enterobacteriaceae isolated from blood culture bottles was evaluated using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry. A cefotaxime hydrolysis assay from chocolate agar subcultures using antibiotic discs and without inoculum standardization was developed for routine work flow, with minimal hands-on time. This assay showed good performance in distinguishing between cefotaxime-susceptible and cefotaxime-resistant strains, with excellent results for Escherichia coli (sensitivity 94.

Use of liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to detect carbapenemase production in Enterobacteriaceae by a rapid meropenem degradation assay.

We evaluated the analytical performance of a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry assay to detect carbapenemase activity in a group of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae by meropenem hydrolysis. This one-hour method showed a sensitivity of 94% and a specificity of 100%, representing a rapid and reliable option compared to conventional phenotypic assays.

Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight and comparative genomic analysis of M-18 group a Streptococcus strains associated with an acute rheumatic fever outbreak in northeast Italy in 2012 and 2013.

Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) is a postsuppurative sequela caused by Streptococcus pyogenes infections affecting school-age children. We describe here the occurrence of an ARF outbreak that occurred in Bologna province, northeastern Italy, between November 2012 and May 2013. Molecular analysis revealed that ARF-related group A Streptococcus (GAS) strains belonged to the M-18 serotype, including subtypes emm18.

Electron dynamics controlled via self-interaction.

The dynamics of an electron in a strong laser field can be significantly altered by radiation reaction. This usually results in a strongly damped motion, with the electron losing a large fraction of its initial energy. Here we show that the electron dynamics in a bichromatic laser pulse can be indirectly controlled by a comparatively small radiation reaction force through its interplay with the Lorentz force.

Plasma-based generation and control of a single few-cycle high-energy ultrahigh-intensity laser pulse.

A laser-boosted relativistic solid-density paraboloidal foil is known to efficiently reflect and focus a counterpropagating laser pulse. Here we show that in the case of an ultrarelativistic counterpropagating pulse, a high-energy and ultrahigh-intensity reflected pulse can be more effectively generated by a relatively slow and heavy foil than by a fast and light one. This counterintuitive result is explained with the larger reflectivity of a heavy foil, which compensates for its lower relativistic Doppler factor.

Comparison between MALDI-TOF MS and FilmArray Blood Culture Identification panel for rapid identification of yeast from positive blood culture.

In this study we evaluated MALDI-TOF MS and FilmArray methods for the rapid identification of yeast from positive blood cultures. FilmArray correctly identified 20/22 of yeast species, while MALDI-TOF MS identified 9/22. FilmArray is a reliable and rapid identification system for the direct identification of yeasts from positive blood cultures.

Outbreak of Citrobacter freundii carrying VIM-1 in an Italian Hospital, identified during the carbapenemases screening actions, June 2012.

Objective: The identification of patients colonized or infected with carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE), in order to control and prevent the global spread of multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens.

Methods: From June 1 to June 15, 2012, eight Citrobacter freundii strains with reduced susceptibility to carbapenems were isolated from rectal swabs of hospitalized patients during active screening following the detection of a Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC) -positive patient on the ward. All isolates were analyzed phenotypically and molecularly by PCR and sequencing.

Evaluation of phenotypic and genotypic approaches for the detection of class A and class B carbapenemases in Enterobacteriaceae.

The spread of carbapenemases in Enterobacteriaceae is among the most important issues in the antimicrobial resistance. The rapid and recent diffusion of class A and B carbapenemases determined the need of specific diagnostic tests able to detect with high sensitivity this type of resistance and to discriminate between the different enzymes. The aim of this study was to test two carbapenemase detection assays, the Rosco Synergic and the Hyplex polymerase chain reaction-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays for screening carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae.

Radiation-pressure-dominant acceleration: Polarization and radiation reaction effects and energy increase in three-dimensional simulations.

Polarization and radiation reaction (RR) effects in the interaction of a superintense laser pulse (I>10(23) W cm-2) with a thin plasma foil are investigated with three dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. For a linearly polarized laser pulse, strong anisotropies such as the formation of two high-energy clumps in the plane perpendicular to the propagation direction and significant radiation reactions effects are observed. On the contrary, neither anisotropies nor significant radiation reaction effects are observed using circularly polarized laser pulses, for which the maximum ion energy exceeds the value obtained in simulations of lower dimensionality.

Abilities of preschoolers: comparing different tools.

Background: There is a strong need for studies evaluating tests in terms both of psychometric properties (i.e. their efficacy or ability to be helpful in reaching a diagnosis) and of their cost-effectiveness (i.