State of the art in tracheal surger. A brief literature review

Background: Tracheal surgery requires a highly specialized team of anesthesiologists, thoracic surgeons, and operative support staff. It remain a formidable challenge for surgeons due to the criticality connected to anatomical considerations, intraoperative airway management, technical complexity of reconstruction, and the potential postoperative morbidity and mortality. Main body: This article focuses on the main technical aspects and literature data regarding laryngotracheal and tracheal resection and reconstruction. Particular attention will be paied to anastomotic and non-anastomotic complications. Short conclusion: Results from literature confirm that, when feasible, laryngotracheal and tracheal resection and reconstruction is the treatment of choice in cases of benign stricture and malign neoplasm. Careful patient selection, operative planning, and execution are required for optimal results

EVALITA Evaluation of NLP and Speech Tools for Italian - December 17th, 2020

Welcome to EVALITA 2020! EVALITA is the evaluation campaign of Natural Language Processing and Speech Tools for Italian. EVALITA is an initiative of the Italian Association for Computational Linguistics (AILC, http://www.ai-lc.it) and it is endorsed by the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AIxIA, http://www.aixia.it) and the Italian Association for Speech Sciences (AISV, http://www.aisv.it)

Exploiting Sentinel-5P TROPOMI and Ground Sensor Data for the Detection of Volcanic SO2 Plumes and Activity in 2018–2021 at Stromboli, Italy

Sulfur dioxide (SO2) degassing at Strombolian volcanoes is directly associated with magmatic activity, thus its monitoring can inform about the style and intensity of eruptions. The Stromboli volcano in southern Italy is used as a test case to demonstrate that the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) onboard the Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor (Sentinel-5P) satellite has the suitable spatial resolution and sensitivity to carry out local-scale SO2 monitoring of relatively small-size, nearly point-wise volcanic sources, and distinguish periods of different activity intensity. The entire dataset consisting of TROPOMI Level 2 SO2 geophysical products from UV sensor data collected over Stromboli from 6 May 2018 to 31 May 2021 is processed with purposely adapted Python scripts. A methodological workflow is developed to encompass the extraction of total SO2 Vertical Column Density (VCD) at given coordinates (including conditional VCD for three different hypothetical peaks at 0–1, 7 and 15 km), as well as filtering by quality in compliance with the Sentinel-5P Validation Team’s recommendations. The comparison of total SO2 VCD time series for the main crater and across different averaging windows (3 × 3, 5 × 5 and 4 × 2) proves the correctness of the adopted spatial sampling criterion, and practical recommendations are proposed for further implementation in similar volcanic environments. An approach for detecting SO2 VCD peaks at the volcano is trialed, and the detections are compared with the level of SO2 flux measured at ground-based instrumentation. SO2 time series analysis is complemented with information provided by contextual Sentinel-2 multispectral (in the visible, near and short-wave infrared) and Suomi NPP VIIRS observations. The aim is to correctly interpret SO2 total VCD peaks when they either (i) coincide with medium to very high SO2 emissions as measured in situ and known from volcanological observatory bulletins, or (ii) occur outside periods of significant emissions despite signs of activity visible in Sentinel-2 data. Finally, SO2 VCD peaks in the time series are further investigated through daily time lapses during the paroxysms in July–August 2019, major explosions in August 2020 and a more recent period of activity in May 2021. Hourly wind records from ECMWF Reanalysis v5 (ERA5) data are used to identify local wind direction and SO2 plume drift during the time lapses. The proposed analysis approach is successful in showing the SO2 degassing associated with these events, and warning whenever the SO2 VCD at Stromboli may be overestimated due to clustering with the plume of the Mount Etna volcano

Assessment of Anxiety and Coping Features in Bruxers: A Portable Electromyographic and Electrocardiographic Study

To determine whether there is a correlation between any psychological features and sleep bruxism (SB)

La costruzione di un Archivio di microdati sulle famiglie italiane ottenuto integrando l’indagine ISTAT sui consumi delle famiglie italiane e l’Indagine Banca d’Italia sui bilanci delle famiglie italiane

La ricerca ha l'obiettivo di integrare, tramite matching statistico, i record delle indagini campionarie orientate allo studio dei redditi (indagine Shiw della Banca d'Italia e ECA) e dei consumi (indagine Hbs) delle famiglie italiane. Ciò allo scopo di creare un database completo e consistente per la costruzione di una matrice di contabilità sociale

Long-Term Outcomes after Surgical Resection for Synchronous or Metachronous Hepatic and Pulmonary Colorectal Cancer Metastases

Background/Aims: At present, benefits of surgical resection and appropriate selection criteria in patients affected by both hepatic and pulmonary metastases of colorectal cancer (CRC) are under discussion. Our analysis focused on a surgical series of such patients and our final aim consisted in identifying potential prognostic factors. Methods: Eighty-five patients undergoing resection of both hepatic and pulmonary metastases at 2 Healthcare Institutions from January 1993 to June 2015 were retrospectively reviewed as concerned clinical information, surgical notes and pathological features. Patient, treatment, and outcome variables were analyzed by use of log-rank tests, Cox regression, and Kaplan-Meier methods. Results: Liver turned out as the first site of metastasis in 75% patients, lung in 13% patients, and both sites in 12% patients. Multiple hepatic metastases were detected in 67% patients and pulmonary metastases in 31% patients. Two hundred eighteen surgical interventions were performed (mean 2.56 for each patient). Overall survival (OS) rates at 3-, 5-, and 10-year follow-up from colorectal resection were 94, 79, and 38% respectively. Median OS was 8.31 years. Survival turned out significantly longer for patients with disease-free interval (DFI) exceeding 1 year between first metastasectomy and diagnosis of second metastases and in patients affected by metachronous pulmonary metastases. Conclusions: Surgical resection of both hepatic and pulmonary metastases of CRC represents a safe and effective treatment. It might lead to rewarding long-term survival rates in high selected patients. Shorter DFIs between first metastasectomy and diagnosis of second metastases can determine worse prognoses. In addition, poor outcomes could be predicted also for patients affected by synchronously detected pulmonary CRC metastases, although further confirmatory analyses are strongly required

Is sleeve lobectomy comparable in terms of short- and long-term results with pneumonectomy after induction therapy? A multicenter analysis

BACKGROUND: Sleeve lobectomy (SL) is considered a valid therapeutic option in untreated, centrally located non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) even in patients "fit" for pneumonectomy (PN). Nevertheless, SL feasibility and long-term results after induction therapy (IT) have been only rarely investigated. We herein report the results of a multicenter retrospective study on NSCLC patients who underwent PN or SL after IT for locally advanced NSCLC. METHODS: From January 1992 to January 2012, 119 consecutive patients (94 males, 25 females) underwent in three tertiary referral centers either SL (bronchial, arterial, or both) or PN for locally advanced NSCLC after IT (chemotherapy alone or combined chemoradiotherapy). The indication for SL was based on technical feasibility. Clinical and pathologic variables were retrospectively reviewed, and treatment results were assessed and compared in both groups. Survival was calculated by Kaplan-Meier method and compared by the log-rank test as well the Cox regression model. RESULTS: Sleeve lobectomy was performed in 51 patients and PN, in 68 patients. Thirty-day mortality and morbidity rates were 3.9% and 9.8% for SL and 2.9% and 22.1% for PN, respectively. Five-year survival rates were 53.8% after SL and 43.1% after PN, respectively (p = 0.28). Overall recurrence rate was 42.8% after SL and 47.0% after PN (p = 0.34); relapse was locoregional in 22.4% of SL cases and 12.1% after PN, respectively (p = 0.011). The Cox analysis suggested pN status and right side as independent risk factors for death in the SL group (hazard ratio, 1.96; 95% confidence interval, 1.12 to 3.44; p = 0.018; and hazard ratio, 2.96; 95% confidence interval, 1.13 to 8.66; p = 0.047, respectively). As well, pN status and right side were a strong predictor of relapse (hazard ratio, 2.33; 95% confidence interval, 1.17 to 4.64; p = 0.016; and hazard ratio, 2.96; 95% confidence interval, 1.13 to 8.66; p = 0.046, respectively) in SL patients. CONCLUSIONS: For locally advanced NSCLC, SL represents a safe and effective surgical option when compared with PN even after IT, with substantially comparable early and long-term results. Nevertheless, further investigations on a large cohort of patients are neede