Incidence and prognosis of ventilator-associated pneumonia in critically ill patients with covid-19: A multicenter study

The primary objective of this multicenter, observational, retrospective study was to assess the incidence rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients in intensive care units (ICU). The secondary objective was to assess predictors of 30-day case-fatality of VAP. From 15 February to 15 May 2020, 586 COVID-19 patients were admitted to the participating ICU. Of them, 171 developed VAP (29%) and were included in the study. The incidence rate of VAP was of 18 events per 1000 ventilator days (95% confidence intervals [CI] 16–21). Deep respiratory cultures were available and positive in 77/171 patients (45%). The most frequent organisms were Pseudomonas aeruginosa (27/77, 35%) and Staphylococcus aureus (18/77, 23%). The 30-day case-fatality of VAP was 46% (78/171). In multivariable analysis, septic shock at VAP onset (odds ratio [OR] 3.30, 95% CI 1.43–7.61, p = 0.005) and acute respiratory distress syndrome at VAP onset (OR 13.21, 95% CI 3.05–57.26, p < 0.001) were associated with fatality. In conclusion, VAP is frequent in critically ill COVID-19 patients. The related high fatality is likely the sum of the unfavorable prognostic impacts of the underlying viral and the superimposed bacterial diseases

Impact of chronic liver disease upon admission on COVID-19 in-hospital mortality: Findings from COVOCA study

Background Italy has been the first Western country to be heavily affected by the spread of SARS-COV-2 infection and among the pioneers of the clinical management of pandemic. To improve the outcome, identification of patients at the highest risk seems mandatory. Objectives Aim of this study is to identify comorbidities and clinical conditions upon admission associated with in-hospital mortality in several COVID Centers in Campania Region (Italy). Methods COVOCA is a multicentre retrospective observational cohort study, which involved 18 COVID Centers throughout Campania Region, Italy. Data were collected from patients who completed their hospitalization between March-June 2020. The endpoint was in-hospital mortality, assessed either from data at discharge or death certificate, whilst all exposure variables were collected at hospital admission. Results Among 618 COVID-19 hospitalized patients included in the study, 143 in-hospital mortality events were recorded, with a cumulative incidence of about 23%. At multivariable logistic analysis, male sex (OR 2.63, 95%CI 1.42–4.90; p = 0.001), Chronic Liver Disease (OR 5.88, 95%CI 2.39–14.46; p<0.001) and malignancies (OR 2.62, 95%CI 1.21–5.68; p = 0.015) disclosed an independent association with a poor prognosis, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and Respiratory Severity Scale allowed to identify at higher mortality risk. Sensitivity analysis further enhanced these findings. Conclusion Mortality of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 appears strongly affected by both clinical conditions on admission and comorbidities. Originally, we observed a very poor outcome in subjects with a chronic liver disease, alongside with an increase of hepatic damage

Profili di umidità e di cloruro di sodio durante l’essiccazione del Capocollo

E’ stato sviluppato un modello matematico basato sulle leggi di Fick della diffusione per affrontare in modo semplice le interazioni reciproche tra i profili di concentrazione di umidità e di NaCl durante le varie fasi di lavorazione del Capocollo. Le concentrazioni di sale e di umidità sono determinate sperimentalmente su cinque sezioni concentriche. Un codice agile e di rapida esecuzione implementa il modello matematico per mezzo del software FlexPDE ® students’ edition. I risultati ottenuti dal modello matematico nelle differenti sezioni radiali sono in accordo con i dati sperimentali

8 Years of experience in teaching process dynamics and control with control station® software

The paper describes all the steps of a teaching activity dealing with Process Dynamics and Control and focused on the students use of the Control Station® simulation software. After a short software description, the paper discusses the methodology developed for coupling theoretical lecturing and practical PC-lab class, the way of involving students and the use of an interactive software environment to present automatic control of illustrative process plants. These latter comprise unit operations and simple equipment from chemical, biochemical, pharmaceutical and food industries as actual examples of abstract systems and mathematical formalisms introduced for studying processes in the context of dynamics and control. Two Project Works, which were developed by students using Control Station® and discussed by them, are presented as examples. The outcome of this 8-year teaching experience is analyzed on the basis of the number of Project Works annually delivered, the auto-evaluation tests, the final exam scores as well as the relevant answers yearly provided by the students through the Course Evaluation Forms. The final statistical results are positive

VALORIZATION OF ROASTED HAZELNUT CUTICLES SUPPORTED BY LABORATORY TECHNIQUES

This paper reports the experimental results of an on-going project running at labscale and aimed at the valorization of roasted hazelnut cuticles through both chemical (i.e., solvent extraction) and thermochemical treatment (i.e., torrefaction) routes. In particular, the potential of using water as a green solvent for the extraction of bioactive compounds (i.e., substances of chemical-food-pharmaceutical interest, such as the polyphenols) contained in residues originated by industrial processing of hazelnuts has been investigated, applying the conventional laboratory Soxhlet extraction procedure. A subsequent valorization stage has been explored for the spent post-extraction residues versus the "as collected" ones; they lend themselves to become "renewable" solid fuels thanks to torrefaction, which is a "mild" thermochemical conversion process. The obtained results are first presented in terms of theoretical yields of the bioactive compounds of interest with respect to the original mass of hazelnut residue; in addition, the findings on torrefaction are discussed in terms of performance indexes with respect to the torrefied fuel and quantitatively expressed by correlations as a function of temperature