Accidental neck and chest penetration by a metal sliver derived from an axe for wood chopping: A case report

Background: Penetrating neck and chest trauma is a very common entity in emergency medicine that usually requires surgical treatment. Our case report illustrates the case of a 27-year-old Arabian man with hemopneumothorax associated with pneumomediastinum due to an unusual occupational injury. Case presentation: A metal sliver, coming from an axe using for wood chopping, penetrated the neck of a 27-year-old Arabian man in the left supraclavicular region mimicking a gun bullet; the entrance hole was at the left pleural dome where the sliver had just penetrated the apex of the lung passing through the upper lobe of his left lung creating an exit wound in the dorsal segment of the same lobe arriving in the posterior thoracic wall. Biportal video-assisted thoracic surgery was performed to remove blood clots and the unusual foreign body. Conclusion: In the literature, there are several case series about this topic, with some of them reporting unusual foreign bodies that lead to penetrating trauma. However, to the best of our knowledge, no cases like the one we have reported are described in the current literature

New insights into the comorbid conditions of Turner syndrome: results from a long-term monocentric cohort study

Purpose Many questions concerning Turner syndrome (TS) remain unresolved, such as the long-term complications and, therefore, the optimal care setting for adults. The primary aim of this long-term cohort study was to estimate the incidence of comorbid conditions along the life course. Methods A total of 160 Italian patients with TS diagnosed from 1967 to 2010 were regularly and structurally monitored from the diagnosis to December 2019 at the University Hospital of Bologna using a structured multidisciplinary monitoring protocol. Results The study cohort was followed up for a median of 27 years (IQR 12-42). Autoimmune diseases were the comorbid condition with the highest incidence (61.2%), followed by osteoporosis and hypertension (23.8%), type 2 diabetes (16.2%) and tumours (15.1%). Median age of onset ranged from 22 years for autoimmune diseases to 39 years for type 2 diabetes. Malignant tumours were the most prominent type of neoplasm, with a cumulative incidence of 11.9%. Papillary thyroid carcinoma was the most common form of cancer, followed by skin cancer and cancer of the central nervous system. Only one major cardiovascular event (acute aortic dissection) was observed during follow-up. No cases of ischaemic heart disease, heart failure, stroke or death were recorded. Conclusions This cohort study confirms the need for continuous, structured and multidisciplinary lifelong monitoring of TS, thus ensuring the early diagnosis of important comorbid conditions, including cancer, and their appropriate and timely treatment. In addition, these data highlight the need for the increased surveillance of specific types of cancer in TS, including thyroid carcinoma

Improvement in range segmentation parameters tuning

A great effort has been done during last years to improve range image segmentation results. The efficacy of the algorithms is affected by the parameters tuning. In this work two well-known search techniques have been applied to this task: genetic algorithms and simulated annealing. These techniques are adopted in cascade: the former to obtain a rough seed point set and the latter to have a more precise refinement of suitable solutions. We addressed our efforts towards the range segmenter proposed by the University of Bern, that seems to be the best in term of versatility, being able to segment planar and curved surfaces, and in term of speed and quality of the performed segmentations. © 2002 IEEE

Influence of acute cholecystitis on surgical strategy and outcome of inapparent early carcinoma of the gallbladder: report of two cases.

Ranking Score 1997: I.F. 1,04

Wine-growing and producing farm buildings: meta-design analysis for the definition of spatial layouts

Wine production in Italy, among the first in the world in quantitative terms (48.63 19 106 hl in 2008), is characterized by a considerable fragmentation (total vineyard area of 840 000 ha and almost 771 000 wine growing farms, 79% of which smaller than 5 ha) and differentiation at regional level, with regard both to the variety of wines and to production amounts. The present study is part of a wider research dealing with the design of wine-growing and producing farm buildings, with particular reference to the Emilia-Romagna region, among the first ones in Italy as for quantities of produced wine (12.5 % of national production). In this context, wine farms with small to medium productive size, predominantly processing their own grapes, are largely widespread with a marked orientation towards quality and brand productions and a particular attention to the promotion of such local specificities and of their image within the landscape. The peculiarities of functional requirements and of production and marketing processes of these realities, jointly with the investment resources, generally proportioned to the limited farm size, represent the conditions mostly affecting the design of new processing buildings or of the transformation of existing ones. Therefore, the consolidated planning guidelines commonly suitable for industrial wineries, treated in several technical and scientific papers, are not directly applicable to the above-mentioned typologies of farms, which call for the definition of focused planning standards. The study aims to define and validate a specific meta-design process for the considered typologies of wine-growing and producing farms, suitable to lead to the definition of possible layout solutions optimized in terms of production requirements. In particular, the attention is focused on the design of buildings that host all the spatial units functional to the processing and marketing activities. Within the Emilia-Romagna region, a study area is considered, defined basing on the importance and representativeness of the wine sector. The analysis methodology is based on the meta-design approach, proposed by several authors as an effective path for the definition of functional and layout solutions for agro-industrial buildings. Basing on the analysis of the wine-growing and producing sector and of the normative-technical context of the study area, we proceeded to the breakdown of the production process into the main functional sections, for which every single phase was identified, together with the specific elementary activities and the respective operations carried out by workers, considering the labour features and the necessary facilities. The performed analyses led firstly to the definition of the appropriate functional areas to be considered in building design, through the identification of the operational requirements and the systems of activities and functions spatially and temporally associated and compatible with each other. Then the aggregation of functional areas according to homogeneous requirements, intrinsic to the transformation process, led to define the spatial units composing the different sections of the building and to the schematization of possible layout solutions