Predicting Intentions from Motion: The Subject-Adversarial Adaptation Approach

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Antibiotic-loaded hydrogel coating to reduce early postsurgical infections in aseptic hip revision surgery: a retrospective, matched case-control study

Periprosthetic joint infections (PJIs) are a cause of frequent implant failure in revision hip replacement surgery. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the onset of early postoperative infections in patients who underwent hip surgery with cementless prostheses treated with an antibiotic loaded hydrogel on their surface, in addition to systemic prophylaxis, and compare them to a control group. The secondary objective was to evaluate the onset of any local and systemic adverse effects and interference with bone ingrowth processes and functional recovery. A retrospective observational study was conducted on patients who underwent revision hip surgery by performing a 1:1 match between patients treated with an antibiotic hydrogel (ALH) and the control patients. The incidence of PJIs was assessed with a minimum of six months follow-up. Seventeen patients treated with the ALH were compared with 17 patients from the control group. No PJIs were reported in the ALH group versus the six cases encountered in the control group (p < 0.0001). No significant differences were reported with regard to prosthetic osseointegration and functional results, nor were there side effects in the ALH group. Despite the low sample size, the use of on-site prophylaxis with ALH has proven effective and safe in reducing the risk of PJIs in patients with a high risk for infections. Further studies are needed to validate these results in other implant-related surgeries

SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-related cutaneous manifestations: a systematic review

To date, over 250 million people have been reportedly infected by COVID-19 disease, which has spread across the globe and led to approximately 5.1 million fatalities. To prevent both COVID-19 and viral transmission, DNA-based/RNA-based vaccines, non-replicating viral vector vaccines, and inactivated vaccines have been recently developed. However, a precise clinical and histological characterization of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-related dermatological manifestations is still lacking. A systematic review of 229 articles was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, in order to provide an extensive overview of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-related skin manifestations. Data on demographics, number of reported cases with cutaneous involvement, vaccine, and rash type (morphology) were extracted from articles and summarized. A total of 5941 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-related dermatological manifestations were gathered. Local injection-site reactions were the most frequently observed, followed by rash/unspecified cutaneous eruption, urticarial rashes, angioedema, herpes zoster, morbilliform/maculopapular/erythematous macular eruption, pityriasis rosea and pityriasis rosea-like eruptions, and other less common dermatological manifestations. Flares of pre-existing dermatological conditions were also reported. Cutaneous adverse reactions following SARS-CoV-2 vaccine administration seem to be heterogeneous, rather infrequent, and not life-threatening. Vaccinated patients should be monitored for skin manifestations, and dermatological evaluation should be offered, when needed

Quality of life, coping ability, and metabolic control in patients with type 1 diabetes managed by group care and a carbohydrate counting program.

Group care is a clinical-pedagogic model in which traditional routine visits are substituted by sessions of group education. This approach improves quality of life and metabolic control in patients with type 2 diabetes (1) but only quality of life in those with type 1 diabetes (2). The latter must match multiple daily insulin administrations with blood glucose monitoring, dietary intake, and energy expenditure (3). We hypothesized that to improve their coping strategies, patients with type 1 diabetes need more specific training in the technical aspects of day-to-day management of insulin therapy. To verify this, we studied the effects of embedding a carbohydrate counting program within group care on quality of life, knowledge

Automatic Identification of Relevant Colors in Non-Destructive Quality Evaluation of Fresh Salad Vegetables

Quality loss during storage is often associated to changes in relevant product colors and/or to the appearance of new pigments. Computer Vision System (CVS) for non-destructive quality evaluation often relies on human knowledge provided by operators to identify these relevant colors and their features. The approach described in this paper automatically identifies the most significant colors in unevenly colored products to evaluate their quality level. Its performance was compared with results obtained by exploiting human training. The new method improved quality evaluation and reduced the subjectivity and the inconsistency potentially induced by operators

Is postoperative hyponatremia a real threat for total hip and knee arthroplasty surgery?

Postoperative hyponatremia (POH) is thought to be a fearsome complication of orthopedic surgery. Primary aim of this cohort study was to evaluate the incidence of POH and its clinical relevance in elective surgery, outlining differences between total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and total hip arthroplasty, looking for the presence of any risk factor commonly related to POH. Four hundred two patients that underwent total hip arthroplasty and total knee arthroplasty performed between 2016 and 2017 were retrospectively examined. Serum electrolytes, hemoglobin, hematocrit, glucose, and creatinine were evaluated preoperatively and at day 0-I-II from surgery. Age, sex, body mass index, comorbidities, drugs, surgery data, transfusions, postoperative symptoms, and length of stay (LOS) were determined. All surgeries were performed by the same equipe. Patients had the same perioperative management, excluded those that took thiazides, already at risk of POH. Patients were divided in 2 groups: group A, patients with normal postoperative natremia (294 patients) and group B, patients who developed POH (108, 26.9%); 66.7% of these developed POH within 24 hours postoperatively. In group B mean postoperative natremia was 133.38 (127.78-134.85) mmol/L. Two patients (1.8%) developed moderate hyponatremia, no severe hyponatremia was documented. Type of surgery, operation time, LOS, and presence of postoperative symptoms did not show statistically significant differences within groups. At multivariate logistic analysis chronic use of thiazides was the only variable associated to a decreased risk of developing POH (OR = 0.39;P = .03). Hemoglobin postoperative values (OR = 1.22;P = .03), the need of postoperative transfusion (OR = 2.50;P = .02) and diabetes (OR = 2.70;P = .01) were associated to an increased risk of POH. Although 26.9% of our patients exhibited POH, the onset of this disorder had no implication on postoperative symptoms and on LOS. Diabetes and transfusion are factors most often associated to POH