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Abstract Visceral leishmaniasis has been recognized as an opportunistic infection affecting people with cellular-immunity impairment, including hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) recipients. We describe the case of a young Italian man with Hodgkin lymphoma, who developed visceral leishmaniasis after multiple lines of chemotherapy and allogenic HCT. Literature review of visceral leishmaniasis in HCT recipients was also performed. Eleven patients (median age 50 years, 9 male) developed visceral leishmaniasis after allogenic (n = 9) and autologous (n = 2) HCT. Most of them presented with fever and pancytopenia. Bone marrow examination was the main diagnostic technique; liposomal amphotericin B was the treatment of choice. Four out of eight patients (for whom data are available) experienced visceral leishmaniasis relapse. Visceral leishmaniasis in HCT recipients is a rare event that should be suspected in patients with persistent fever, pancytopenia and possible exposure to Leishmania spp., remembering that – as well as South-East Asia, East Africa and South America - it is endemic in several European regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The slow and continuous movements of a deep and complex active landslide system cause severe damage to Latronico , a village of the Italian southern Apennines. In order to obtain a deeper insight in the phenomenon, its kinematic features have been investigated by means of both ground based displacement measurements (by mobile and fixed-in-place inclinometers) and by the processing of images acquired by synthetic aperture radar sensors (ERS, Envisat, COSMO-SkyMed satellites). The results of the analyses show that the landslide system includes different phenomena at different scales and of different age, from old and huge landslides (early stage of last post-glacial) to young shallower reactivations. Secondary creep and rain-induced displacements coexist, occurring at different depths. The reconstruction of the kinematic history of the inhabited area–subsoil system shows that the yearly average displacement rates have been almost constant over the last 25 years (several cm/year). The depth of the slip surfaces and the volumes of the instable soils explain why the numerous and expensive remedial measures and stabilization interventions have had very limited effects, if any, on the displacement rate field. Highlights • The movements of a deep and complex landslide system cause severe damage to Latronico, a village of the Italian Apennines. • The kinematics has been investigated by means of ground-based measurements and processing of satellite images. • Secondary shear creep occurs on the deepest slip surface, rain-dependent displacements occur on the shallowest slip surface. • Displacements occurred with almost constant yearly average rate over the last 25 years, with slight seasonal variations. • The depth of the slip surfaces explains why the remedial interventions have had no effects on the displacement rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Randomized clinical trials in non-critically ill COVID-19 patients showed that therapeutic-dose heparin increased survival with reduced organ support as compared with usual-care thromboprophylaxis, albeit with increased bleeding risk. The purpose of the study is to assess the safety of intermediate dose enoxaparin in hospitalized patients with moderate to severe COVID-19. Methods: A phase II single-arm interventional prospective study including patients receiving intermediate dose enoxaparin once daily according to body weight: 60 mg for 45–60 kg, 80 mg for 61–100 kg or 100 mg for > 100 kg for 14 days, with dose adjustment according to anti-factor Xa activity (target range: 0.4–0.6 UI/ml); an observational cohort (OC) included patients receiving enoxaparin 40 mg day for comparison. Follow-up was 90 days. Primary outcome was major bleeding within 30 and 90 days after treatment onset. Secondary outcome was the composite of all-cause 30 and 90-day mortality rates, disease severity at the end of treatment, intensive care unit (ICU) admission and length of ICU stay, length of hospitalization. All outcomes were adjudicated by an independent committee and analyzed before and after propensity score matching (PSm). Results: Major bleeding was similar in IC (1/98 1.02%) and in the OC (none), with only one event observed in a patient receiving concomitantly anti-platelet therapy. The composite outcome was observed in 53/98 patients (54%) in the IC and 132/203 (65%) patients in the OC (p = 0.07) before PSm, while it was observed in 50/90 patients (55.6%) in the IC and in 56/90 patients (62.2%) in the OC after PSm (p = 0.45). Length of hospitalization was lower in the IC than in OC [median 13 (IQR 8–16) vs 14 (11–21) days, p = 0.001], however it lost statistical significance after PSm (p = 0.08). At 30 days, two patients had venous thrombosis and two pulmonary embolism in the OC. Time to first negative RT-PCR were similar in the two groups. Conclusions: Weight adjusted intermediate dose heparin with anti-FXa monitoring is safe with potential positive impact on clinical course in COVID-19 non-critically ill patients. Trial registration: The study INHIXACOVID19 was registred on ClinicalTrials.gov with the trial registration number (TRN) NCT04427098 on 11/06/2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The differential synthetic aperture radar interferometry (DInSAR) technique has dramatically boosted the application of remote sensing in many geophysical disciplines, particularly tectonics. Coseismic interferograms have provided, in many cases, “images of earthquakes,” showing the surface displacement due to the deep fault dislocation. Aside from being visually appealing, such interferograms are of fundamental importance for the analysis, by means of appropriate dislocation models, of the geometrical and kinematic characteristics of the fault, which are also parameters of key interest for earthquake risk management. This paper provides a contribution in the general framework of the integration of dislocation models in DInSAR processing. In particular, with reference to coseismic interferograms, it proposes a technique that allows the direct inversion of wrapped interferograms for dislocation model analysis. This option makes it possible to avoid the critical and error-prone processing step of phase unwrapping, carried out in the classical analysis of interferometric data. Examples of inversion of real data, relevant to the 1999 Athens and Izmit earthquakes, demonstrate the feasibility and the advantages of this data processing approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multipass differential synthetic aperture radar interferometry is becoming increasingly important as a powerful technique for ground deformation retrieval compared with classical geodetic techniques such as levelling and global positioning system (GPS). It proves superior in terms of costs, coverage, data accessibility and availability of historical archives. Application to different areas of risk management such as monitoring of volcanoes and slope instabilities, tectonic movements, urban areas and infrastructure, has already been successfully demonstrated. In this work we discuss a new multipass differential synthetic aperture radar interferometry processing technique that makes extensive use of spatial differences. The results obtained demonstrate that this technique allows the monitoring of ground deformation over wide areas. The processed data were acquired from ERS-1 and ERS-2 sensors over three partially overlapping tracks related to a region, approximately 240 km N-S and 80 km E-W wide, located in the centre-south of Italy, along the west coast. Comparison of the mean deformation velocity results over the different tracks and of the deformation evolution with levelling measures, available in some areas, shows good agreement and goes to validate the technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A technique to provide interferometry by combining multiple images of the same area is proposed. This technique exploits all the images jointly and performs an optimal spectral shift pre-processing to remove most of the decorrelation for distributed targets. Its applications are mainly for DEM generation at centimetric accuracy, and for differential interferometry. The major requirement is that targets are coherent over all the images: this may be the case for current multi-pass over desert areas, or better for the case of images coming from future short revisit time systems (constellations, cart-wheel, geosynchronous SAR etc.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates the impact of the focusing operation carried out on squinted raw data acquisitions performed by synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors operating in the stripmap mode. Overview of the SAR processing; Analysis of cylindrical and conical geometries; Description of the geometric and phase properties of the focused images in conical SAR processing.

Presents information on a study on the analysis and compensation of trajectory deviations in airborne synthetic aperture radar systems. Frequency domain analysis; Simulation results; Conclusions.

To empirically investigate if and how the use of economic evaluation in healthcare priority setting is influenced by social values and institutional context in a given country. Preliminary results suggest that social values and institutional context do matter greatly when it comes to shaping the attitude towards the use of economic evaluation analysis in healthcare priority setting. [Extracted from the article]

Recently it has been suggested that an enhancement in the visibility of ghost images obtained with thermal light can be achieved exploiting higher order correlations.1 This paper reports on the status of a higher order ghost imaging experiment carried on at INRIM labs exploiting a pseudo-thermal source and a CCD camera. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three-dimensional (3-D) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging is a recent technique, based on coherent SAR data combination, and aims to obtain a full 3-D analysis in space. It is a multibaseline extension of the SAR interferometry concept and offers new options for the analysis and monitoring of ground scenes by means of the capability of separating the scattering phenomena along the height dimension. In this work, the authors summarise and extend the results obtained by processing real ERS satellite urban data characterised by a long time span of acquisition and non-uniformly spaced satellite passes, comparing the performance in height focusing obtained with a singular value decomposition (SVD)-based method and adaptive beamforming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) is used to investigate the effects of a subsidence phenomenon – related to groundwater withdrawal –on ancient low‐rise masonry buildings located in the urban area of Sarno, Italy. ERS‐1/2 SAR data from 1992 to 2002 were analysed and results were validated with geodetic data. The results encourage future developments for study and use of the multi‐temporal DInSAR technique in the mitigation of subsidence risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we show how ascending and descending ERS-1/ERS-2 tandem data can be used to generate a precise digital elevation model (DEM). In particular we present the advantages, for DEM generation, of combining ascending and descending interferometric data pairs with large baselines; unwrapping problems caused by the high fringe rates of these data are minimized by applying a flattening technique based on the use of a data pair with smaller baseline. The presented experiments carried out on the data of an area with steep topography (Etna volcano, Italy) confirm the potentiality of the proposed technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: Limiting tidal volume (VT) may minimize ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI). However, atelectasis induced by low VT ventilation may cause ultrastructural evidence of cell disruption. Apoptosis seems to be involved as protective mechanisms from VILI through the involvement of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs). We examined the hypothesis that atelectasis may influence the response to protective ventilation through MAPKs. DESIGN: Prospective randomized study. SETTING: University animal laboratory. SUBJECTS: Adult male 129/Sv mice. INTERVENTIONS: Isolated, nonperfused lungs were randomized to VILI: VT of 20 mL/kg and positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) zero; low stretch/lung rest: VT of 6 mL/kg and 8-10 cm H2O of PEEP; low stretch/open lung: VT of 6 mL/kg, two recruitment maneuvers and 14-16 cm H2O of PEEP. Ventilator settings were adjusted using the stress index. MEASUREMENT AND MAIN RESULT: Both low stretch strategies equally blunted the VILI-induced derangement of respiratory mechanics (static volume-pressure curve), lung histology (hematoxylin and eosin), and inflammatory mediators (interleukin-6, macrophage inflammatory protein-2 [enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay], and inhibitor of nuclear factor-kB[Western blot]). VILI caused nuclear swelling and membrane disruption of pulmonary cells (electron microscopy). Few pulmonary cells with chromatin condensation and fragmentation were seen during both low stretch strategies. However, although cell thickness during low stretch/open lung was uniform, low stretch/lung rest demonstrated thickening of epithelial cells and plasma membrane bleb formation. Compared with the low stretch/open lung, low stretch/lung rest caused a significant decrease in apoptotic cells (terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase mediated deoxyuridine-triphosphatase nick end-labeling) and tissue expression of caspase-3 (Western blot). Both low stretch strategies attenuated the activation of MAPKs. Such reduction was larger during low stretch/open lung than during low stretch/lung rest (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Low stretch strategies provide similar attenuation of VILI. However, low stretch/lung rest strategy is associated to less apoptosis and more ultrastructural evidence of cell damage possibly through MAPKs-mediated pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Campi Flegrei caldera has a long history of large surface deformation, with displacements of several meters in the 1970s and early 1980s. Its location within a densely populated urban area underscores the importance of understanding the relationship between large and episodic deformation events and their source mechanisms. The primary observable of the caldera’s activity is its surface deformation. Classical geodetic approaches such as leveling, have been complemented by the more advanced measurements of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) interferometry. In this work we focus on the Campi Flegrei caldera uplift event that occurred from early spring to late summer 2000. Our goal is to highlight the potential to integrate interferometric SAR (IFSAR), GPS, and classical leveling data for ground deformation studies and source modeling. We compare models for the deformation source constrained by inversion of the differential IFSAR data (DIFSAR) with the model’s prediction for the GPS and leveling data. Resolution of possible changes in the source mechanism for Campi Flegrei caldera are limited by differences in the temporal, spatial and deformation component strengths of each data set. In the future, overcoming these data deficiencies will be important for resolving the dynamics of volcano systems and for volcanic hazard mitigation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]