How SARS-CoV-2 Infection Impacts the Management of Patients with Vulvar Cancer: Experience in a Third-Level Hospital of Southern Italy

: Background: Since February 2020, the spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Italy has induced the government to call for lockdown of any activity apart from primary needs, and changing the lives of each of us. All that has dramatically impacted the management of patients affected by cancer. Patients with vulvar cancer (VC) represent a particularly frail population because they are elderly and affected by multiple comorbidities. The aim of this study is to evaluate the clinical impact of the SARS-CoV-2 infection on VC patients in terms of delay or impossibility of carrying out the scheduled treatment. Methods: The medical records of patients affected by vulvar tumors, referred to "DAI Materno-Infantile" of AOU Federico II of Naples between February 2020 and January 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. The presence of a positive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in nasopharyngeal swab defined the positivity to SARS-CoV-2. Results: Twenty-four patients with VC were analyzed and scheduled for treatment. The median age was 70.7 years (range: 59-80). Seven (29.2%) patients were diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection: In three (42.8%) patients, the treatment was delayed with no apparent consequences, in four (57.2%), the treatment was delayed or changed due to cancer progression and, of these four, one died due to respiratory complications of COVID-19, and one died due to oncologic disease progression. Conclusion: COVID-19 caused, in most cases, significant delays in oncologic treatments and high mortality in our series of patients affected by VC

Fredholm determinants and pole-free solutions to the noncommutative Painleve' II equation

We extend the formalism of integrable operators a' la Its-Izergin-Korepin-Slavnov to matrix-valued convolution operators on a semi-infinite interval and to matrix integral operators with a kernel of the form E_1^T(x) E_2(y)/(x+y) thus proving that their resolvent operators can be expressed in terms of solutions of some specific Riemann-Hilbert problems. We also describe some applications, mainly to a noncommutative version of Painleve' II (recently introduced by Retakh and Rubtsov), a related noncommutative equation of Painleve' type. We construct a particular family of solutions of the noncommutative Painleve' II that are pole-free (for real values of the variables) and hence analogous to the Hastings-McLeod solution of (commutative) Painleve' II. Such a solution plays the same role as its commutative counterpart relative to the Tracy-Widom theorem, but for the computation of the Fredholm determinant of a matrix version of the Airy kernel.Comment: 46 pages, no figures (oddly

Noncommutative Painlev\ue9 equations and systems of Calogero type

All Painlev\ue9 equations can be written as a time-dependent Hamiltonian system, and as such they admit a natural generalization to the case of several particles with an interaction of Calogero type (rational, trigonometric or elliptic). Recently, these systems of interacting particles have been proved to be relevant in the study of -models. An almost two-decade-old open question by Takasaki asks whether these multi-particle systems can be understood as isomonodromic equations, thus extending the Painlev\ue9 correspondence. In this paper we answer in the affirmative by displaying explicitly suitable isomonodromic Lax pair formulations. As an application of the isomonodromic representation, we provide a construction based on discrete Schlesinger transforms, to produce solutions for these systems for special values of the coupling constants, starting from uncoupled ones; the method is illustrated for the case of the second Painlev\ue9 equatio

Argonne National Laboratory Reports

Physicochemical and thermodynamic studies of liquid-lithium-containing systems have continued. Pressure-composition isotherms for the lithium-hydrogen system measured by a gravimetric technique are found to be in reasonably good agreement with earlier tensimetric results. Plateau-pressure studies of the lithium-hydrogen, lithium-deuterium, and lithium-tritium systems have been made at temperatures above and below the monotectic. The observed isotope effects were found to be near the predicted values. Measurements of the solubility of the lithium-deuterium in liquid lithium gave results in good agreement with prior data for the solubility of lithium-hydrogen in lithium and confirmed that the limits on cold trapping of lithium hydrides from lithium are too high for protected fusion reactor applications. Determination of the solubility of lithium dioxide in liquid lithium is nearing completion. Solubility values measured to date are slightly lower than, but in the range of, prior measurements

Argonne National Laboratory Reports

Studies in basic energy science covered many different activities, nearly all of which were designed to gain information required for a better understanding of systems important to national needs in energy and environment. Studies of associating gases included measurements of thermal conductivities and basic molecular orbital calculations. Raman spectroscopy and spectrophotometry were used to determine thermodynamic and spectroscopic data on salt vapor complexes. Polarized Raman spectra of As2S3 thin films and vapors were recorded. Halogenation of lanthanide oxides with aluminum chloride allowed the separation of the resultant chloride complexes by vapor transport. Electrochemical titrations were used to obtain the solubility product of iron sulfide in molten LiCl-KCl eutectic. Solubility products of eleven sulfides in the same eutectic mixture were calculated. Galvanostatic techniques were used to study metal deposition/dissolution reactions in molten salts. Activity coefficients of lithium in lithium-lead alloys were determined electrochemically; phase diagrams of ternary alloys of Li-Al-Mg and Li-Ca-Mg were computed. Thermodynamic studies are being made of the sorption of hydrogen by Li-Al and Li-Pb alloys. The study of the solubility of oxygen in liquid lithium was completed. An electric resistance method for measuring distribution properties of nonmetallic elements in binary metallic systems containing lithium is being developed. Calorimetric methods were used to measure standard enthalpies of formation of some coal components, lanthanum and rare earth trifluorides, and gamma-UO3, UF6, Cs3CrO4, Cs4CrO4, As4S4, and As2S3. High-temperature enthalpy increments were measured for LaF3 and beta-As4S4. The acidities of airborne ammonium sulfate-bearing particles from various areas of the U.S. were measured using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy

Argonne National Laboratory Reports

The hydrogen permeabilities of selected metals, alloys, and multiplex preparations that are of interest to fusion reactor technology are being characterized. A high-vacuum hydrogen-permeation apparatus has been constructed for this purpose. A program of studies has been initiated to develop design details for the tritium-handling systems of near-term fusion reactors. This program has resulted in a better definition of reactor-fuel-cycle and enrichment requirements and has helped to identify major research and development problems in the tritium-handling area. The design and construction of a 50-gallon lithium-processing test loop (LPTL) is well under way. Studies in support of this project are providing important guidance in the selection of hardware for the LPTL and in the design of a molten-salt processing test section