Ophthalmological emergencies and the SARSCoV-2 outbreak

Since the end of 2019, an outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), originating in the Chinese city of Wuhan has spread rapidly worldwide causing thousands of deaths. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is supported by SARS-CoV-2 and represents the causative agent of a potentially fatal disease that is of great global public health concern. Italy has been the first European country recording an elevated number of infected forcing the Italian Government to call for total lockdown. The lockdown had the aim to limit the spread of infection through social distancing. The purpose of this study is to analyze how the pandemic has affected the patient’s accesses to the Ophthalmological Emergency Department of a tertiary referral center in central-northern Italy, during the lockdown period. The charts of all patients that came to the Emergency Department during the lockdown period (March 10 –May 4, 2020) have been retrospectively collected and compared with those in the same period of 2019 and the period from 15 January– 9 March 2020. A significant reduction of visits during the lockdown has been observed, compared with those of pre-lockdown period (reduction of 65.4%) and with those of the same period of 2019 (reduction of 74.3%). Particularly, during the lockdown, minor and not urgency visits decreased whereas the undeferrable urgency ones increased. These pieces of evidence could be explained by the fear of patients to be infected; but also revealed patients misuse of emergency services

Comparison of techniques for computing shell-model effective operators

Different techniques for calculating effective operators within the framework of the shell model using the same effective interaction and the same excitation spaces are presented. Starting with the large-basis no-core approach, we compare the time-honored perturbation-expansion approach and a model-space truncation approach. Results for the electric quadrupole and magnetic dipole operators are presented for $^6$Li. The convergence trends and dependence of the effective operators on differing excitation spaces and Pauli Q-operators is studied. In addition, the dependence of the electric-quadrupole effective charge on the harmonic-oscillator frequency and the mass number, for A=5,6, is investigated in the model-space truncation approach.Comment: 18 pages. REVTEX. 4 PostScript figure

TOXOPLASMOSIS: FOOD SAFETY AND RISK COMMUNICATION

Toxoplasmosis, parasitic pathology supported by Toxoplasma gondii, is a typical example of multi-issue and inter-disciplinary on which, with equal intensity, converge the interests of various branches of human and veterinary medicine. The aim of research was the assessment of risk communication to pregnant women by doctors gynecologists involved in ASL's territorial about toxoplasmosis, which can have serious effects on pregnancy and the unborn child. The results acquired during the investigation showed the need to develop and implement appropriate information campaigns and proper nutrition education

Escherichia coli O26 IN RAW BUFFALO MILK: PRELIMINARY RESULTS

Escherichia coli O26 is considered to be one of the most important food-borne pathogen. In this study, 120 buffalo milk samples collected in Lazio and in Apulia regions were tested for the presence of E. coli O26. One buffalo milk sample (0,8%) tested positive for E. coli O26; the isolate was positive at the verocytotoxicity test and it showed resistance properties to different antimicrobial classes. These preliminary results highlight the need to monitor the foods of animal origin used for production and eaten by a wide range of persons, respect VTEC organism

Transition Rates between Mixed Symmetry States: First Measurement in 94Mo

The nucleus 94Mo was investigated using a powerful combination of gamma-singles photon scattering experiments and gamma-gamma-coincidence studies following the beta-decay of 94mTc. The data survey short-lived J^pi=1+,2+ states and include branching ratios, E2/M1 mixing ratios, lifetimes, and transition strengths. The mixed-symmetry (MS) 1+ scissors mode and the 2+ MS state are identified from M1 strengths. A gamma transition between MS states was observed and its rate was measured. Nine M1 and E2 strengths involving MS states agree with the O(6) limit of the interacting boson model-2 using the proton boson E2 charge as the only free parameter.Comment: 9 pages, 3 PostScript figures included, ReVTeX, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters, tentatively scheduled for August 9, 199

Crystallinity Effects in Sequentially Processed and Blend-Cast Bulk-Heterojunction Polymer/Fullerene Photovoltaics

Although most polymer/fullerene-based solar cells are cast from a blend of the components in solution, it is also possible to sequentially process the polymer and fullerene layers from quasi-orthogonal solvents. Sequential processing (SqP) not only produces photovoltaic devices with efficiencies comparable to the more traditional bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells produced by blend casting (BC) but also offers the advantage that the polymer and fullerene layers can be optimized separately. In this paper, we explore the morphology produced when sequentially processing polymer/fullerene solar cells and compare it to the BC morphology. We find that increasing polymer regioregularity leads to the opposite effect in SqP and BC BHJ solar cells. We start by constructing a series of SqP and BC solar cells using different types of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) that vary in regioregulary and polydispersity combined with [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric-acid-methyl-ester (PCBM). We use grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering to demonstrate how strongly changes in the P3HT and PCBM crystallinity upon thermal annealing of SqP and BC BHJ films depend on polymer regioregularity. For SqP devices, low regioregularity P3HT films that possess more amorphous regions allow for more PCBM crystallite growth and thus show better photovoltaic device efficiency. On the other hand, highly regioregular P3HT leads to a more favorable morphology and better device efficiency for BC BHJ films. Comparing the photovoltaic performance and structural characterization indicates that the mechanisms controlling morphology in the active layers are fundamentally different for BHJs formed via SqP and BC. Most importantly, we find that nanoscale morphology in both SqP and BC BHJs can be systematically controlled by tuning the amorphous fraction of polymer in the active layer. © 2014 American Chemical Society

A Brézis–Nirenberg Type Problem for a Class of Degenerate Elliptic Problems Involving the Grushin Operator

Motivated by the seminal paper due to Brézis–Nirenberg (in: Commun Pure Appl Math 36:437–477, 1983), we will establish the existence of solutions for the following class of degenerate elliptic equations with critical nonlinearity: {-Δγv=λ|v|q-2v+|v|2γ∗-2vinΩ,v=0on∂Ω, where Δ γ: = Δ x+ (1 + γ) 2| x| 2γΔ y is the Grushin operator, z: = (x, y) ∈ RN , N= m+ n, m, n≥ 1 , Ω ⊂ RN is a smooth bounded domain, λ> 0 , q∈[2,2γ∗) and 2γ∗=2NγNγ-2 is the critical Sobolev exponent in this context, where Nγ= m+ (1 + γ) n is the so-called homogeneous dimension attached to the Grushin operator Δ γ . In order to prove our main results it was necessary to do a careful study involving the best constant Sγ(m, n) of the Sobolev embedding for the spaces associated with Δ γ . In order to do that, we prove a version of the Lions’ Concentration-Compactness Principle for the Grushin operator. We also provide existence results for a critical problem involving the Grushin operator on the whole space RN

White sponge nevus

White sponge nevus (WSN) is a rare and autosomal dominant disorder characterized by benign, white and spongy plaques of the various mucosae, especially of the oral mucosa. The lesions of WSN are nonpainful and may undergo alternate periods of remission and exacerbation. We report a case of WSN in a 23year-old woman with lesions affecting oral, vulvar, vaginal and cervical mucosae. The treatment with penicillin proved to be unsuccessful