Observational study on lameness recovery in 10 dogs affected by iliopsoas injury and submitted to a physiotherapeutic approach

This preliminary study has investigated the outcome of physiotherapy in 10 dogs affected by a primary lesion of the iliopsoas muscle and the potential effects of sex, age, and breed on recovery. Ten dogs with primary injury of the iliopsoas muscle were retrospectively included in this study. Dogs were submitted to a rehabilitation program, characterized by a multimodal approach, including physical therapies and modalities. After recovery, patients were submitted to a further support period of rehabilitation to promote muscle strengthening and limit injury recurrence during their return to normal functional and sports activity. Border collies were highly represented. The recovery of lameness occurred after a mean of 22.6 ± 14.7 (median 18) days with a median number of five sessions. None of the examined variables affected the recovery time, except for the border collie breed, which showed a significantly faster recovery time; however, there was no difference between the breeds with regard to the number of sessions. Multimodal rehabilitation therapy may promote lameness recovery of mild-to-moderate iliopsoas lesions within 3 weeks. This preliminary study reports a clinical approach and recovery of primary iliopsoas lesions, findings that can provide clinicians with useful prognostic information for dogs involved in sports activities

Novel Deterministic Detection and Estimation Algorithms for Colocated Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Radars

In this manuscript, the problem of detecting multiple targets and estimating their spatial coordinates (namely, their range and the direction of arrival of their electromagnetic echoes) in a colocated multiple-input multiple-output radar system operating in a static or slowly changing two-dimensional or three-dimensional propagation scenario is investigated. Various solutions, collectively called range & angle serial cancellation algorithms, are developed for both frequency modulated continuous wave radars and stepped frequency continuous wave radars. Moreover, specific technical problems experienced in their implementation are discussed. Finally, the accuracy achieved by these algorithms in the presence of multiple targets is assessed on the basis of both synthetically generated data and of the measurements acquired through three different multiple-input multiple-output radars and is compared with that provided by other methods based on multidimensional Fourier analysis and multiple signal classification

Microplastics in deep water : a combined GC-MS e FT-IR approach

Microplastics are water-insoluble, solid polymer particles that are 645\u202fmm in size. A lower size boundary has not been defined, but particles below 1\u202f\u3bcm are usually referred to as nanoplastics rather than microplastics. The ubiquity of microplastics of all sizes in surface water, groundwater and wastewater has raised the question if pollution of drinking water occurs and to date, few studies indeed described the presence of this new contaminant in tap and bottled water. Toxicity it is not yet known, they might cause local inflammations in the gut, but a transport into organs might occur. As a final problem in this field, microplastics in the environment are difficult to sample, to identify and standardized methods do not exist. For this reason, we have been involved in a research project finalized to the definition of a protocol strategy for sampling and analysis of microplastics in drinking waters, coming from deep water wells, in the networks of three large cities in the Northern part of Italy. The project is on going and presently two groups of deep water samples have been collected in the city of Milano and Brescia, before and after the treatment stages used for the urban network. Great attention has been paid to sampling and extraction steps as microplastic contamination, in this kind of samples, is expected to be very low and contamination during sampling might occur through air or materials. Analytical methods have been defined for the detection of main microplastic contamination, like PE/PP, PS, PA, PVC e PET residues > 1 \ub5m. Samples have been analysed first by a non-destructive approach using a Spotlight 200i microscope equipped with a \ub5ATR probe and coupled to an FT-IR spectrophotometer, followed by a mass spectrometric characterization of the polymers by a solid phase microextration (SPME) GC-MS of thermal decomposition products (TED) of microplastic residues. Results will be presented and critically discussed

An Approximate Maximum Likelihood Method for the Joint Estimation of Range and Doppler of Multiple Targets in OFDM-Based Radar Systems

In this manuscript, an innovative method for the detection and the estimation of multiple targets in a radar system employing orthogonal frequency division multiplexing is illustrated. The core of this method is represented by a novel algorithm for detecting multiple superimposed two-dimensional complex tones in the presence of noise and estimating their parameters. This algorithm is based on a maximum likelihood approach and combines a single tone estimator with a serial cancellation procedure. Our numerical results lead to the conclusion that the developed method can achieve a substantially better accuracy-complexity trade-off than various related techniques in the presence of closely spaced targets

Deterministic Signal Processing Techniques for OFDM-Based Radar Sensing: An Overview

In this manuscript, we analyze the most relevant classes of deterministic signal processing methods currently available for the detection and the estimation of multiple targets in a joint communication and sensing system employing orthogonal frequency division multiplexing. Our objective is offering a fair comparison of the available technical options in terms of required computational complexity and accuracy in both range and Doppler estimation. Our numerical results, obtained in various scenarios, evidence that distinct algorithms can achieve a substantially different accuracy-complexity trade-off

Muscle transcriptome analysis identifies genes involved in ciliogenesis and the molecular cascade associated with intramuscular fat content in Large White heavy pigs

Intramuscular fat content (IMF) is a complex trait influencing the technological and sensorial features of meat products and determining pork quality. Thus, we aimed at analyzing through RNA-sequencing the Semimembranosus muscle transcriptome of Italian Large White pigs to study the gene networks associated with IMF deposition. Two groups of samples were used; each one was composed of six unrelated pigs with extreme and divergent IMF content (0.67 \ub1 0.09% in low IMF vs. 6.81 \ub1 1.17% in high IMF groups) that were chosen from 950 purebred individuals. Paired-end RNA sequences were aligned to Sus scrofa genome assembly 11.1 and gene counts were analyzed using WGCNA and DeSeq2 packages in R environment. Interestingly, among the 58 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), several were related to primary cilia organelles (such as Lebercilin 5 gene), in addition to the genes involved in the regulation of cell differentiation, in the control of RNA-processing, and G-protein and ERK signaling pathways. Together with cilia-related genes, we also found in high IMF pigs an over-expression of the Fibroblast Growth Factor 2 (FGF2) gene, which in other animal species was found to be a regulator of ciliogenesis. Four WGCNA gene modules resulted significantly associated with IMF deposition: grey60 (P = 0.003), darkturquoise (P = 0.022), skyblue1 (P = 0.022), and lavenderblush3 (P = 0.030). The genes in the significant modules confirmed the results obtained for the DEGs, and the analysis with "cyto- Hubba" indicated genes controlling RNA splicing and cell differentiation as hub genes. Among the complex molecular processes affecting muscle fat depots, genes involved in primary cilia may have an important role, and the transcriptional reprogramming observed in high IMF pigs may be related to an FGF-related molecular cascade and to ciliogenesis, which in the literature have been associated with fibro-adipogenic precursor differentiation

Solitary fibrous tumor of the pleura: surgery and clinical course in 18 cases

Solitary fibrous tumors of the pleura are very rare neoplasms that can sometimes present with malignant features. Between 1984 and 2007, 18 cases were treated in our institution. There were 7 men and 11 women, with a median age of 56 years (range, 33-77 years). All patients underwent surgical treatment. Except for one case with hemangiopericytic features, all tumors were histologically the fibrous type of pleural mesothelioma. Resections were radical and there were no recurrences. There was no perioperative mortality. The outcome was excellent, and all patients have been followed up continuously. Survival rates at 3, 5, and 10 years were calculated as 86.7%, 75%, and 66.7%. One patient died after 18 months (malignant type of solitary fibrous tumor), and 2 died of unrelated disease after 24 and 53 months. Surgery is the treatment of choice, and careful long-term clinical follow-up is required

The presence of the brown bear (Ursus arctos, L.) in the north eastern Alps (Friuli Venezia Giulia region) in relation to the Alpine metapopulation

The North Eastern Alps (Friuli Venezia Giulia Region) represent a peripheral area of presence of the Dinaric population (for the North Dinaric population, Slovenia, 400-450 individuals estimated) of the Brown Bear; in this area in the last years some individuals has started to come from Trentino population (40-45 individuals estimated) and to use this areas. In previous 114 researches this area has been considered one of the most suitable areas, in the alps, for supporting the alpine brown bear population and for enhancing the creation of the alpine metapopulation. From 2004 to the 2013 in mountains areas of the Friuli Venezia Giulia has been studied (2500 km2) the presence of the Brown Bear with different techniques: the genetic sampling (by opportunistic and systematic methods), photo interpretation and behavioral analysis and radiotelemetry. The genetic samplings have been obtained by the hair traps (50 permanent hair traps plus 80 temporary and moving hair traps) and by opportunistic techniques. By the genetic analysis it has detected the presence, from 2004, of 21 different genotypes (4 from Trentino and 17 from the Dinaric population, 3 of them studied by telemetry), all of them were males. The number of genotypes detected in different year has showed a cyclic pattern, with a increment in the last year, due to dispersing individuals from Dinaric source population; in different years, from 3 to 8 (2013), different genotypes have been detected, with a evident turnover. The median time of presence (years of sampling), for each genotypes, was 2 years, and only 6 genotypes have been sampled for 3 or more years (1 from Trentino); 10 genotypes have been sampled in only one year. Despite to the increment of the Trentino population and the high density of the Dinaric populations, in the north eastern alps the process of immigration and colonization appears to be slow and intermittent and seems correlated more to the demographic aspects (i.e localization and philopatry of the females, now present only in the Alpine and Dinaric areas of Slovenia and on the right side of Adige river, in Trentino), management of the Dinaric population, dispersal behavior and presence of not permeable infrastructure (high way Ljubljana-Trieste) rather than the ecological values of the areas

On Safety Enhancement in IIoT Scenarios through Heterogeneous Localization Techniques

In the field of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), strictly related to Industry 4.0, one of the main aspects to be carefully considered by the governing board of a manufacturing company is the safety level to be guaranteed to the workers inside production plants. This involves daily human activities, together with production machines to be used during the working hour (and periodically maintained), and mobile industrial vehicles moving around the production plant. To this end, a precise localization of both workers and vehicles is expedient to improve the safety level—avoiding that people move inside forbidden areas or perform dangerous actions—as well as allowing a more accurate control and reporting to national authorities in charge of verifying the compliance to safety regulations (e.g., aggregated data, not shared outside the company, used to fill injuries reports in case of official inspections), in the presence of accidents and anomalous events. In this paper, we present the design of IIoT-related localization mechanisms exploiting heterogeneous communication technologies, in turn analysing how the localization can cope with the adoption of wideband (e.g., Wi-Fi) and narrowband (e.g., Narrowband IoT, NB-IoT) communication protocols and discussing how these communication paradigms may impact existing and modern production plants