Point-of-care testing allows successful simultaneous screening of sickle cell disease, HIV, and tuberculosis for households in rural Guinea-Bissau, West Africa

Diagnosis of noncommunicable genetic diseases like sickle cell disease (SCD) and com municable diseases such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or tuberculosis (TB) is often difficult in rural areas of Africa due to the lack of infrastructures, trained staff, or capacity to involve families living in remote areas. The availability of point-of-care (POC) tests for the above diseases offers the opportunity to build joint programs to tackle all conditions. We report successful simultaneous screening of SCD, HIV, and TB utilizing POC tests in 898 subjects in Fanhe, in rural Guinea-Bissau. Adherence was 100% and all diagnosed subjects were enrolled in care program

Flood Protection in Venice under Conditions of Sea-Level Rise: An Analysis of Institutional and Technical Measures

It is widely acknowledged that in times of climate change loss of coastal resources and risk for human life can be minimized by implementing adaptation strategies. Such strategies need to encompass a balanced mix of non-structural (institutional) and structural (technical) measures based on sound scientific knowledge. This article discusses measures carried out to protect the city of Venice, Italy from flooding (locally known as “high water”), and reflects on their ability to anticipate a possible acceleration of sea-level rise as induced by climate change. It is based on scientific literature, legislative and policy documents of key institutions, reports and documents of organizations working on Venice issues, newspaper articles, and interviews. Our analysis shows that the synergic action of the hydraulic defense infrastructure under construction is in principle adequate to withstand a broad range of sea-level rise scenarios for the next 100 years. However, when the goal is to use these investments effectively major changes in the existing institutional arrangements will be required in the years to come. The Venice findings point out the difficulties and yet the importance of identifying and implementing both non-structural and structural measures to adapt to climate change

Risk of miscarriage in women with endometriosis: insights from in vitro fertilization cycles

Objective: To evaluate whether women with endometriosis achieving singleton pregnancies with IVF face an increased risk of miscarriage. Design: Matched case-control study. Setting: Infertility units. Patient(s): Women achieving singleton pregnancies with the use of IVF were considered. Cases were women with a history of surgery for endometriosis and those who were documented the presence of ovarian endometriomas at the time of the IVF cycle (n = 313). Controls were matched to cases by age (\ub16 months), type of cycle (fresh or frozen cycle). and study period (n = 313). Intervention(s): Retrospective review of women undergoing IVF. Main Outcome Measure(s): Rate of miscarriage before 12 weeks' gestation. Result(s): The number of miscarriages in women with and without endometriosis was similar, being 48 (15%) and 60 (19%), respectively. The odds ratio of miscarriage in affected women was 0.76 (95% confidence interval 0.50-1.16). The odds ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), parity, duration of infertility, and male factor infertility was 0.81 (95% confidence interval 0.53-1.25). Subgroup analyses according to the type of cycle, the number of embryos transferred, the presence of endometriomas, and the history of surgery for endometriosis did not document any subgroup at significant increased risk of miscarriage. Conclusion(s): The risk of miscarriage is not increased in women with endometriosis achieving pregnancy with the use of IVF

Spectral Analyses of Gully-Associated Light-Toned Materials from TGO/CaSSIS and MRO/HiRISE Observations: Implications for Martian Gully Formation Mechanisms

International audienc

Multidisciplinary Analysis of Lermontov Crater on Mercury

We present the geological, age determination, and spectrophotometric analysis of the Lermontov Crater on Mercury

Acute chest syndrome in children with sickle cell disease: Data from a national AIEOP cohort identify priority areas of intervention in a hub-and-spoke system

: Acute chest syndrome (ACS) is a frequent cause of hospitalization in sickle cell disease (SCD). Despite advances in acute care, many settings still lack knowledge about ACS best practices. After the AIEOP Guidelines were published in 2012, suggesting standardized management in Italy, a retrospective study was performed to assess the diagnostic and therapeutic pathways of ACS in children. From 2013 to 2018, 208 ACS episodes were presented by 122/583 kids in 11 centres. 73 were male, mean age 10.9 years, 85% African, 92% HbSS or Sβ°. In our hub-and-spoke system, a good adherence to Guidelines was documented, but discrepancies between reference centres and general hospitals were noted. Improvement is needed for timely transfer to reference centres, use of incentive spirometry, oxygen therapy and pain management

Dust Environment Model of the Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov

2I/Borisov is the first interstellar comet discovered on 2019 August 30, and it soon showed a coma and a dust tail. This study reports the results of images obtained at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo telescope, on La Palma - Canary Islands, in 2019 November and December. The images have been obtained with the R filter in order to apply our dust tail model. The model has been applied to the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and compared to the Rosetta dust measurements showing a very good agreement. It has been applied to the comet 2I/Borisov, using almost the same parameters, obtaining a dust environment similar to that of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, suggesting that the activity may be very similar. The dust tail analysis provided a dust-loss rate Qd ≍ 35 kg s-1 in 2019 November and Qd ≍ 30 kg s-1 in 2019 December

I progetti gestiti dai Coordinatori: analisi del loro profilo e successo

Obiettivo. Descrivere la storia dei progetti affidati/ gestiti dai Coordinatori infermieristici ospedalieri. Metodi. \uc8 stato incluso un campione di 56 Coordinatori in ruolo da almeno un anno nei reparti di 13 Ospedali del nord Italia, contattati con criterio di convenienza. Tramite un\u2019intervista strutturata sono stati raccolti dati sui progetti gestiti nel 2009, tipologia, origine (bottom up; top down), il numero di operatori coinvolti e stato del progetto al momento dell\u2019intervista (concluso, incompleto, abbandonato). Risultati. Nel 2009 i Coordinatori hanno gestito 114 progetti, in media 1.8/ciascuno (\ub11.2): 94 (82.5%) erano progetti di miglioramento, 17 (14.9%) di accreditamento, e 3 (2.6%) di ricerca. I progetti avevano coinvolto complessivamente 2.732 persone (73.7% dei team) con un impegno medio di 84 ore ciascuno; 55 (48.2%) progetti erano ancora in corso, 52 (45.6%) conclusi, 5 (4.4%) incompleti (ovvero mancavano di valutazione) mentre 2 (1.8%) erano stati abbandonati. Conclusioni. Gli infermieri sono coinvolti in numerosi progetti nelle aziende sanitarie. La fase pi\uf9 trascurata \ue8 il monitoraggio dei risultati e il loro consolidamento: i progetti assorbono molte risorse e per questo \ue8 fondamentale che siano correttamente gestiti e partano da reali problemi ed esigenze dei pazienti

Spring Deposits and Lakeshore Layered Sediments Inside the Vernal Crater (SW Arabia Terra): A Resource-Rich and Engineering Safe Mars Human Landing Site

We here present the scientific rationale, the resource analysis and the engineering requirements evaluation performed on the Vernal crater and its closest surroundings in SW Arabia Terra, Mars, as a possible future human landing site