Septic skin lesions: an uncommon manifestation of peripheral prosthetic vascular graft infection

Peripheral prosthetic vascular graft infection following lower limb surgical revascularization is a relatively rare but serious condition. A case of early infection and occlusion of a above-knee femoro-popliteal artery prosthetic bypass is here reported. It was accompanied by acute lower limb ischemia, fever and distally by embolic septic skin lesions

Combined Punctual and Diffused Monitoring of Concrete Structures Based on Dielectric Measurements

This work presents a microwave reflectometry-based system for monitoring large concretestructures (during the curing process and also while the structure is in use), through the combineduse of punctual and diffused sensing elements. In particular, the adoption of punctual probes ona reference concrete specimen allows the development of an innovative and accurate calibrationprocedure, useful to obtain the value of the water content on a larger structure made of the samematerial. Additionally, a wire-like diffused sensing element can be permanently embedded inbuildings and used to monitor the structure along the entire length of the sensing element. Theadopted diffused sensing element can be used not only to detect dielectric variation during the curingprocess, but also throughout the service life of the structure. The combined use of punctual anddiffused sensing elements represents an important innovation from a procedural point of view, ableto provide detailed and quantitative information on the health status of the structure both duringand after construction

Fragility Fractures of the Acetabulum: Current Concepts for Improving Patients’ Outcomes

The incidence of fragility fractures of the acetabulum (FFA) is constantly increasing. Generally, these fractures are related to a fall on the greater trochanter involving the anterior column. The management of FFA is extremely difficult considering both patients’ comorbidities and poor bone quality. Both non-operative and several operative treatment protocols are available, and the choice among them is still ambiguous. The proposed surgical techniques for FFA [namely open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF), percutaneous fixation and total hip arthroplasty (THA)] are associated with a high complication rate. The treatment with the higher early mortality is the ORIF + THA, while the one with the lowest is the non-operative. However, at longer follow-up, this difference dreadfully change is becoming the opposite. Frequently ORIF, percutaneous fixation, and non-operative treatment need a subsequent re-operation through a THA. This latter could be extremely difficult, because of poor bone quality, acetabular mal union/non-union, bone gaps and hardware retention. However, the outcomes of each of the proposed treatment are mostly poor and controverted; therefore, a comprehensive patient evaluation and an accurate fracture description are required to appropriately manage acetabular fracture in the elderly

Monitoring and diagnosis of energy consumption in wastewater treatment plants. A state of the art and proposals for improvement

In response to strong growth in energy intensive wastewater treatment, public agencies and industry began to explore and implement measures to ensure achievement of the targets indicated in the 2020 Climate and Energy Package. However, in the absence of fundamental and globally recognized approach evaluating wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) energy performance, these policies could be economically wasteful. This paper gives an overview of the literature of WWTP energy-use performance and of the state of the art methods for energy benchmarking. The literature review revealed three main benchmarking approaches: normalization, statistical techniques and programming techniques, and advantages and disadvantages were identified for each one. While these methods can be used for comparison, the diagnosis of the energy performance remains an unsolved issue. Besides, a large dataset of WWTP energy consumption data, together with the methods for synthesizing the information, are presented and discussed. It was found that no single key performance indicators (KPIs) used to characterize the energy performance could be used universally. The assessment of a large data sample provided some evidence about the effect of the plant size, dilution factor and flowrate. The technology choice, plant layout and country of location were seen as important elements that contributed to the large variability observed

Age-Related Properties of Aquaponics-Derived Tilapia Skin (Oreochromis niloticus): A Structural and Compositional Study

In the last two decades, fisheries and fish industries by-products have started to be recovered for the extraction of type I collagen because of issues related to the extraction of traditional mammalian tissues. In this work, special attention has been paid to by-products from fish bred in aquaponic plants. The valorization of aquaponic fish wastes as sources of biopolymers would make the derived materials eco-friendlier and attractive in terms of profitability and cost effectiveness. Among fish species, Nile Tilapia is the second-most farmed species in the world and its skin is commonly chosen as a collagen extraction source. However, to the best of our knowledge, no studies have been carried out to investigate, in depth, the age-related differences in fish skin with the final aim of selecting the most advantageous fish size for collagen extraction. In this work, the impact of age on the structural and compositional properties of Tilapia skin was evaluated with the aim of selecting the condition that best lends itself to the extraction of type I collagen for biomedical applications, based on the known fact that the properties of the original tissue have a significant impact on those of the final product. Performed analysis showed statistically significant age-related differences. In particular, an increase in skin thickness (+110 µm) and of wavy-like collagen fiber bundle diameter (+3 µm) besides their organization variation was observed with age. Additionally, a preferred collagen molecule orientation along two specific directions was revealed, with a higher fiber orientation degree according to age. Thermal analysis registered a shift of the endothermic peak (+1.7 °C) and an increase in the enthalpy (+3.3 J/g), while mechanical properties were found to be anisotropic, with an age-dependent brittle behavior. Water (+13%) and ash (+0.6%) contents were found to be directly proportional with age, as opposed to protein (-8%) and lipid (-10%) contents. The amino acid composition revealed a decrease in the valine, leucine, isoleucine, and threonine content and an increase in proline and hydroxyproline. Lastly, fatty acids C14:0, C15:0, C16:1, C18:2n6c, C18:3n6, C18:0, C20:3n3, and C23:0 were revealed to be upregulated, while C18:1n9c was downregulated with age

Pregnancy and COVID-19: The Possible Contribution of Vitamin D

Background: Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with the severity of COVID-19. The role of vitamin D in pregnant women with COVID-19 has been poorly investigated to date. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of vitamin D in affecting some clinical features in pregnancy between SARS-CoV-2 positive and negative patients. Methods: Vitamin D pathway related polymorphisms and 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were quantified in pregnant women followed from the first to the third trimester of pregnancy. Vitamin D deficiency was considered with values ≤ 30 ng/mL. Results: In total, 160 women were enrolled: 23 resulted positive for at least one SARS-CoV-2 related test (molecular swab or antibody tests). Vitamin D-associated polymorphisms were able to affect vitamin D levels in SARS-CoV-2 negative and positive subjects: remarkably, all the VDR TaqICC genotype patients were negative for SARS-CoV-2. In a sub-population (118 patients), vitamin D levels correlated with pregnancy-related factors, such as alpha-fetoprotein levels. Third-trimester vitamin D levels were lower in preterm births compared to full-term pregnancy: this trend was highlighted for SARS-CoV-2 positive patients. Conclusions: This is the first study demonstrating a role of vitamin D in affecting the clinical characteristics of pregnant women during the COVID-19 era. Further studies in larger and different cohorts of patients are required to confirm these findings

Green and scalable synthesis of nanocrystalline kuramite

The new generation of solar cells aims to overcome many of the issues created by silicon-based devices (e.g., decommissioning, flexibility and high-energy production costs). Due to the scarcity of the resources involved in the process and the need for the reduction of potential pollution, a greener approach to solar cell material production is required. Among others, the solvothermal approach for the synthesis of nanocrystalline Cu-Sn-S (CTS) materials fulfils all of these requirements. The material constraints must be considered, not only for the final product, but for the whole production process. Most works reporting the successful synthesis of CTS have employed surfactants, high pressure or noxious solvents. In this paper, we demonstrate the synthesis of nanocrystalline kuramite by means of a simpler, greener and scalable solvothermal synthesis. We exploited a multianalytical characterization approach (X-ray diffraction, extended X-ray absorption fine structure, field emission scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and electronic microprobe analysis (EMPA) to discriminate kuramite from other closely related polymorphs. Moreover, we confirmed the presence of structural defects due to a relevant antisite population