SARS-COV-2 Pandemic for Patients with Chronic Obstructive Peripheral Arterial Disease: Impact of Interruption to Access According to Gender in a Single Center Experience

Background: This retrospective study aims to evaluate the impact of interrupted services for peripheral arterial disease (PAD) patients and especially women in a single north-eastern Italian center over a period of 3 months prior to the pandemic, during the first (2020) and the second (2021) wave of contagion in northern Italy. Methods: Patients with PAD at Rutherford stages 3 to 6 that required revascularization between March 2019 and March 2021 were classified into 3 groups, according to the period of treatment: the prepandemic period, the pandemic-20 period, and the pandemic-21 period. Results: Twenty-eight patients were treated in the prepandemic period, 21 in the pandemic-20 period, and 39 in the pandemic-21 period. It was observed that in the both pandemic periods patients presented with more severe stages of limb ischemia, Rutherford 5 and 6 stages. During pandemic-20, patients underwent mostly open surgery, followed by hybrid procedures. No differences were observed between the 3 groups in major amputations, length of hospital stay, type of discharge, limb salvage and mortality. During long-term follow-up, limb salvage appeared to be significantly better in the pandemic-21 group. The gender analysis revealed a significantly reduced female proportion of overall treated patients in 2020 and 2021 compared to the prepandemic period. In the pandemic-20 this difference appears even more evident since treatments on females represented 19% of the total while in the same period of the previous year the male/female percentage was comparable (54% vs. 46%). The women admitted presented higher stages of disease and tended to have a longer hospital stay than men. At 12-month follow-up, limb salvage was similar between the 2 genders but was slightly worse in women. Conclusions: An efficient reorganization of the vascular surgery services during the pandemic period guaranteed the quality and standard of treatment offered in the preceding periods. Among patients suffering from PAD the impact of the pandemic was greater for the female gender. It is therefore important that in addition to a reorganization of hospital services to provide adequate care for patients with ACOP in the pandemic period, greater information and awareness of women

Gres porcelánico: aplicaciones arquitectónicas, procesado y propiedades físico-mecánicas

Porcelainized stoneware is an extremely hard and homogeneous unglazed ceramic material obtained by fastfiring of kaolinitic ceramic bodies containing a large amount of fluxes. The obtained tiles, available in a large variety of colours, shape size and surface finish, are characterized by very low porosity (<0,3wt% expressed as water absorption) and are ideal for heavy-traffic areas subject to mechanical and chemical stresses. Porcelainized stoneware tiles offer alternative valid (and in many cases necessary) solutions to the traditional glazed tiles either for interiors or for exteriors both in modern or classic constructions for flooring and covering.El gres porcelánico es un material cerámico muy duro y homogéneo, no vidriado en su superficie, obtenido por cocción rápida de composiciones ricas en caolinita, conteniendo una gran cantidad de fundentes. Las plaquetas de pavimentos que se obtienen son de una variedad muy extensa en aspectos, diseños y colores, caracterizándose, fundamentalmente, por su muy baja porosidad (<0,3wt%, expresado en porcentaje de capacidad de absorción de agua). Estos materiales son ideales para tráfico pesado en áreas sujetas a intensas tensiones mecánicas y químicas. El gres porcelánico ofrece alternativas válidas (y, en muchos casos, soluciones necesarias) a los pavimentos vidriados tradicionales, en interiores o para usos exteriores, ambos con decoraciones modernas o clásicas para suelos o recubrimientos de paredes

Daylight saving time and acute myocardial infarction: a meta-analysis

Background The current evidence on the effects of daylight saving time (DST) transitions on major cardiovascular diseases is limited, and available results are conflicting. We carried out the first meta-analysis aimed at evaluating the risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) following DST transitions. Methods We searched MedLine and Scopus up to December 31, 2018, with no language restriction, to retrieve cohort or case-control studies evaluating AMI incidence among adults (≥18y) in the week following spring and/or autumn DST shifts versus control periods. A summary relative risk of AMI was computed after: (1) spring, (2) autumn, (3) both transitions considered together versus control weeks. Stratified analyses were performed by gender and age. Data were combined using a generic inverse-variance approach. Results Seven studies (>115,000 subjects) were included in the analyses. A significantly higher risk of AMI (Odds Ratio: 1.03; 95% CI: 1.01-1.06) was observed in the two weeks following spring or winter DST transitions. The risk increase was however significant only after the spring shift (OR: 1.05; 1.02-1.07), while AMI incidence in the week after winter DST transition was comparable to control periods (OR 1.01; 0.98-1.04). No substantial differences by age or gender emerged. Conclusions The risk of AMI increases modestly but significantly following DST transitions, supporting the proposal of DST shifts discontinuation. Additional studies fully adjusting for potential confounders are required to confirm the present findings

Wnt/CTNNB1 signal transduction pathway inhibits the expression of ZFP36 in squamous cell carcinoma, by inducing transcriptional repressors SNAI1, SLUG and TWIST

The Wnt/CTNNB1 pathway is often deregulated in epithelial tumors. The ZFP36 gene, encoding the mRNA binding protein Tristetraprolin (TTP), is downregulated in several cancers, where it has been described to behave as a tumor suppressor. By this report, we show that Wnt/CTNNB1 pathway is constitutively activated, and ZFP36 expression is downregulated in Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) cell lines compared to normal keratinocytes. Moreover, we suggest that the decrease of ZFP36 expression might depend on the activity of transcriptional repressors SNAI1, SLUG and TWIST, whose expression is induced by Wnt/CTNNB1, highlighting a potential regulatory mechanism underlying ZFP36 downregulation in epithelial cancers

Ivar, an interpretation‐oriented tool to manage the update and revision of variant annotation and classification

The rapid evolution of Next Generation Sequencing in clinical settings, and the resulting challenge of variant reinterpretation given the constantly updated information, require robust data management systems and organized approaches. In this paper, we present iVar: a freely available and highly customizable tool with a user‐friendly web interface. It represents a platform for the unified management of variants identified by different sequencing technologies. iVar accepts variant call format (VCF) files and text annotation files and elaborates them, optimizing data organization and avoiding redundancies. Updated annotations can be periodically re‐uploaded and associated with variants as historically tracked attributes, i.e., modifications can be recorded whenever an updated value is imported, thus keeping track of all changes. Data can be visualized through variant‐centered and sample‐centered interfaces. A customizable search function can be exploited to periodically check if pathogenicity‐related data of a variant has changed over time. Patient recontacting ensuing from variant reinterpretation is made easier by iVar through the effective identification of all patients present in the database carrying a specific variant. We tested iVar by uploading 4171 VCF files and 1463 annotation files, obtaining a database of 4166 samples and 22,569 unique variants. iVar has proven to be a useful tool with good performance in terms of collecting and managing data from a medium‐throughput laboratory

(E)-N-Benzyl­idene-4H-1,2,4-triazol-4-amine

The title compound, C9H8N4, crystallizes with three independent mol­ecules (A, B and C) per asymmetric unit. The independent mol­ecules differ slightly in their conformations, the dihedral angles between the triazole and phenyl rings in mol­ecules A, B and C being 4.8 (2), 9.7 (2) and 7.2 (2)°, respectively. In the crystal, the independent mol­ecules are linked into a trimer by C—H⋯N hydrogen bonds

Generalized Jacobi identities and ball-box theorem for horizontally regular vector fields

We consider a family of vector fields and we assume a horizontal regularity on their derivatives. We discuss the notion of commutator showing that different definitions agree. We apply our results to the proof of a ball-box theorem and Poincar\'e inequality for nonsmooth H\"ormander vector fields.Comment: arXiv admin note: material from arXiv:1106.2410v1, now three separate articles arXiv:1106.2410v2, arXiv:1201.5228, arXiv:1201.520

Processing of a silicon-carbide-whisker-reinforced glass-ceramic composite by microwave heating

A calcium magnesium aluminosilicate-based glass that contained 10 wt% of silicon carbide whiskers (SiCw) as reinforcement was prepared by tape casting, followed by sintering either in a conventional furnace or in a microwave oven. The results were consistent with retardation of glass sintering through whisker bridging. The glass, by itself, was sintered to almost-full density at 750 degrees C for 4 h by conventional furnace sintering; the best sintered composite, with an estimated density of similar to 90%, was obtained at 800 degrees C with a dwell time of 4 h. Sintering at a temperature of >800 degrees C did not improve the densification but rather resulted in severe whisker oxidation. A reduced densification rate was observed for the samples that were sintered in nitrogen. By contrast, in the microwave oven, almost-full density for the glass and similar to 95% of the theoretical density for the composite were obtainable at 850 degrees C for 15 min, which represented a reduction of similar to 10 h of the total processing time and a reduced SiCw oxidation

Seasonal pattern of peptic ulcer hospitalizations: analysis of the hospital discharge data of the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have reported seasonal variation in peptic ulcer disease (PUD), but few large-scale, population-based studies have been conducted. METHODS: To verify whether a seasonal variation in cases of PUD (either complicated or not complicated) requiring acute hospitalization exists, we assessed the database of hospital admissions of the region Emilia Romagna (RER), Italy, obtained from the Center for Health Statistics, between January 1998 and December 2005. Admissions were categorized by sex, age ( or = 75 yrs), site of PUD lesion (stomach or duodenum), main complication (hemorrhage or perforation), and final outcome (intended as fatal outcome: in-hospital death; nonfatal outcome: patient discharged alive). Temporal patterns in PUD admissions were assessed in two ways, considering a) total counts per single month and season, and b) prevalence proportion, such as the monthly prevalence of PUD admissions divided by the monthly prevalence of total hospital admissions, to assess if the temporal patterns in the raw data might be the consequence of seasonal and annual variations in hospital admissions per se in the region. For statistical analysis, the chi2 test for goodness of fit and inferential chronobiologic method (Cosinor and partial Fourier series) were used. RESULTS: Of the total sample of PUD patients (26,848 [16,795 males, age 65 +/- 16 yrs; 10,053 females, age 72 +/- 15 yrs, p or = 75 yrs of age. There were more cases of duodenal (DU). (89.8%) than gastric ulcer (GU) (3.6%), and there were 1,290 (4.8%) fatal events. Data by season showed a statistically difference with the lowest proportion of PUD hospital admissions in summer (23.3%) (p < 0.001), for total cases and rather all subgroups. Chronobiological analysis identified three major peaks of PUD hospitalizations (September-October, January-February, and April-May) for the whole sample (p = 0.035), and several subgroups, with nadir in July. Finally, analysis of the monthly prevalence proportions yielded a significant (p = 0.025) biphasic pattern with a main peak in August-September-October, and a secondary one in January-February. CONCLUSIONS: A seasonal variation in PUD hospitalization, characterized by three peaks of higher incidence (Autumn, Winter, and Spring) is observed. When data corrected by monthly admission proportions are analyzed, late summer-autumn and winter are confirmed as higher risk periods. The underlying pathophysiologic mechanisms are unknown, and need further studies. In subjects at higher risk, certain periods of the year could deserve an appropriate pharmacological protection to reduce the risk of PUD hospitalization