Adapted physical activity in subjects and athletes recovering from covid-19: a position statement of the Società Italiana Scienze Motorie e Sportive

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a worldwide pandemic illness that is impacting the cardiovascular, pulmonary, musculoskeletal, and cognitive function of a large spectrum of the worldwide population. The available pharmacological countermeasures of these long-term effects of COVID-19 are minimal, while myriads of non-specific non-pharmacological treatments are emerging in the literature. In this complicated scenario, particular emphasis should be dedicated to specific exercise interventions tailored for subjects and athletes recovering from COVID-19. Specific guidelines on adapted physical activity in this critical population are unavailable so far, therefore, in this position statement of the Società Italiana di Scienze Motorie e Sportive (SISMeS) the members of the steering committee of the research group Attività Motoria Adattata, Alimentazione, Salute e Fitness have indicated the adapted physical activity approaches to counteract the long-term effects of the COVID-19, both in good health people and athletes

Full Geant4 and FLUKA Simulations of an e-LINAC for its Use in Particle Detectors Performance Tests

In this work we present the results of full Geant4 and FLUKA simulations and comparison with dosimetry data of an electron LINAC of St. Maria Hospital located in Terni, Italy. The facility is being used primarily for radiotherapy and the goal of present study is the detailed investigation of electron beam parameters to evaluate the possibility to use the e-LINAC (during time slots when it is not used for radiotherapy) to test the performance of detector systems in particular those designed to operate in space. The critical beam parameters are electron energy, profile and flux available at the surface of device to be tested. The present work aims to extract these parameters from dosimetry calibration data available at the e-LINAC. The electron energy ranges is from 4 MeV to 20 MeV. The dose measurements have been performed by using an Advanced Markus Chamber which has a small sensitive volume.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, 2 table

Detecting Latin-Based Medical Terminology in Croatian Texts

No matter what the main language of texts in the medical domain is, there is always an evidence of the usage of Latin-derived words and formative elements in terminology development. Generally speaking, this usage presents language-specific morpho-semantic behaviors in forming both technical-scientific and common-usage words. Nevertheless, this usage of Latin in Croatian medical texts does not seem consistent due to the fact that diferent mechanisms of word formation may be applied to the same term. In our pursuit to map all the diferent occurrences of the same concept to only one, we propose a model designed within NooJ and based on dictionaries and morphological grammars. Starting from the manual detection of nouns and their variations, we recognize some word formation mechanisms and develop grammars suitable to recognize Latinisms and Croatinized Latin medical terminology

RUOLO DELLA RM-DWI INTEGRATA DAL PARAMETRO ADC NELLO STUDIO DEL COLESTEATOMA

: La Risonanza Magnetica pesata in diffusione (RM-DWI) distingue qualitativamente il colesteatoma dal tessuto di granulazione nei pazienti con otite media cronica. Il calcolo del coefficiente di diffusione apparente (ADC) consente un'analisi quantitativa identificando un cut-off numerico che differenzia le due tipologie tissutali. MATERIALI E METODI: lo studio retrospettivo ha riguardato 100 pazienti sottoposti a Timpanoplastica per colesteatoma primario o residuo/recidivante. Tutti i pazienti sono stati sottoposti a RM-DWI preoperatoria tra Aprile 2015 e Marzo 2019, con calcolo di ADC (R-version 3.2.5). La presenza di colesteatoma è stata accertata intraoperatoriamente e confermata istologicamente. RISULTATI: i reperti chirurgici di 100 pazienti sono stati confrontati con i valori medi ADC ed analizzata la distribuzione di quest’ultimi per colesteatoma/tessuto di granulazione, evidenziando due gruppi. La differenza nel valore medio di ADC tra colesteatoma (0,86 × 10-3mm2/s) e tessuto di granulazione (2.22×10-3mm2/s) ha rilevato una differenza statisticamente significativa di ADC per i pazienti con/senza colesteatoma (p <2.2 × 10-16). Il modello binomiale di regressione logistica prevede la probabilità dello stato patologico, mediante ADC. Il potere predittivo di questo modello è stato misurato mediante curva ROC e applicando la statistica Youden J sulla curva abbiamo stabilito un valore di probabilità di ~ 0,6 per definire un cut-off (specificità = 1.0 sensibilità = 0.9861111) pari a ADC=1,71×10-3mm2/s. CONCLUSIONI: lo studio ha evidenziato che è possibile stabilire un cut-off di ADC per identificare pre-operatoriamente con elevata significatività statistica la presenza di matrice colesteatomatosa. In tal modo la RM-DWI diviene una “tool diagnostico” utile ed affidabile in quei casi in cui il colesteatoma non è certamente evidenziabile in otomicroscopia e/o nel follow-up di pazienti già sottoposti a primo tempo chirurgico

Extended adjuvant endocrine treatment for premenopausal women: A Delphi approach to guide clinical practice

The use of an aromatase inhibitor (AI) in combination with ovarian function suppression (OFS) has become the mainstay of adjuvant endocrine therapy in high-risk premenopausal patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. Although five years of such therapy effectively reduces recurrence rates, a substantial risk of late recurrence remains in this setting. Multiple trials have shown that extending AI treatment beyond five years could offer further protection. However, as these studies comprised only postmenopausal patients, no direct evidence currently exists to inform about the potential benefits and/or side effects of extended AI + OFS therapies in premenopausal women. Given these grey areas, we conducted a Delphi survey to report on the opinion of experts in breast cancer treatment and summarize a consensus on the discussed topics. A total of 44 items were identified, all centred around two main themes: 1) defining reliable prognostic factors to pinpoint premenopausal patients eligible for endocrine therapy extension; 2) designing how such therapy should optimally be administered in terms of treatment combinations and duration based on patients’ menopausal status. Each item was separately discussed and anonymously voted by 12 experts representing oncological institutes spread across Italy. The consensus threshold was reached in 36 out of 44 items (82%). Herein, we discuss the levels of agreement/disagreement achieved by each item in relation to the current body of literature. In the absence of randomized trials to guide the tailoring of extended AI treatment in premenopausal women, conclusions from our study provide a framework to assist routine clinical practice

Differential branching fraction and angular analysis of the decay B0→K∗0μ+μ−

The angular distribution and differential branching fraction of the decay B 0→ K ∗0 μ + μ − are studied using a data sample, collected by the LHCb experiment in pp collisions at s√=7 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb−1. Several angular observables are measured in bins of the dimuon invariant mass squared, q 2. A first measurement of the zero-crossing point of the forward-backward asymmetry of the dimuon system is also presented. The zero-crossing point is measured to be q20=4.9±0.9GeV2/c4 , where the uncertainty is the sum of statistical and systematic uncertainties. The results are consistent with the Standard Model predictions

A Study of Time-Dependent CP-Violating Asymmetries and Flavor Oscillations in Neutral B Decays at the Upsilon(4S)

We present a measurement of time-dependent CP-violating asymmetries in neutral B meson decays collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B Factory at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. The data sample consists of 29.7 ${\rm fb}^{-1}$ recorded at the $\Upsilon(4S)$ resonance and 3.9 ${\rm fb}^{-1}$ off-resonance. One of the neutral B mesons, which are produced in pairs at the $\Upsilon(4S)$, is fully reconstructed in the CP decay modes $J/\psi K^0_S$, $\psi(2S) K^0_S$, $\chi_{c1} K^0_S$, $J/\psi K^{*0}$ ($K^{*0}\to K^0_S\pi^0$) and $J/\psi K^0_L$, or in flavor-eigenstate modes involving $D^{(*)}\pi/\rho/a_1$ and $J/\psi K^{*0}$ ($K^{*0}\to K^+\pi^-$). The flavor of the other neutral B meson is tagged at the time of its decay, mainly with the charge of identified leptons and kaons. The proper time elapsed between the decays is determined by measuring the distance between the decay vertices. A maximum-likelihood fit to this flavor eigenstate sample finds $\Delta m_d = 0.516\pm 0.016 {\rm (stat)} \pm 0.010 {\rm (syst)} {\rm ps}^{-1}$. The value of the asymmetry amplitude $\sin2\beta$ is determined from a simultaneous maximum-likelihood fit to the time-difference distribution of the flavor-eigenstate sample and about 642 tagged $B^0$ decays in the CP-eigenstate modes. We find $\sin2\beta=0.59\pm 0.14 {\rm (stat)} \pm 0.05 {\rm (syst)}$, demonstrating that CP violation exists in the neutral B meson system. (abridged)Comment: 58 pages, 35 figures, submitted to Physical Review

Observation of two new Ξb−\Xi_b^- baryon resonances

Two structures are observed close to the kinematic threshold in the $\Xi_b^0 \pi^-$ mass spectrum in a sample of proton-proton collision data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb$^{-1}$ recorded by the LHCb experiment. In the quark model, two baryonic resonances with quark content $bds$ are expected in this mass region: the spin-parity $J^P = \frac{1}{2}^+$ and $J^P=\frac{3}{2}^+$ states, denoted $\Xi_b^{\prime -}$ and $\Xi_b^{*-}$. Interpreting the structures as these resonances, we measure the mass differences and the width of the heavier state to be $m(\Xi_b^{\prime -}) - m(\Xi_b^0) - m(\pi^{-}) = 3.653 \pm 0.018 \pm 0.006$ MeV$/c^2$, $m(\Xi_b^{*-}) - m(\Xi_b^0) - m(\pi^{-}) = 23.96 \pm 0.12 \pm 0.06$ MeV$/c^2$, $\Gamma(\Xi_b^{*-}) = 1.65 \pm 0.31 \pm 0.10$ MeV, where the first and second uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. The width of the lighter state is consistent with zero, and we place an upper limit of $\Gamma(\Xi_b^{\prime -}) < 0.08$ MeV at 95% confidence level. Relative production rates of these states are also reported.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure