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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]

As shown by the studies of Gustilo–Anderson, infections are one of the most frequent complications in open fractures, owing to the heavy contamination of tissue during the trauma. Therefore, an immediate antibiotic prophylaxis capable of covering the majority of microbes involved in this type of contamination is needed. In this paper we address this need by proposing a diagnostic-therapeutic protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern spaceborne synthetic aperture radar sensors are able to operate the spotlight mode to achieve very high resolution images at microwave frequencies. This mode is characterized by antenna steering to increase the illumination interval. The steering is carried out by beam switching on bursts during the data acquisition interval. In addition to an unavoidable spectrum modulation in azimuth, phase shifts can occur from burst to burst. In this letter, we describe the problem and a procedure able to estimate the phase shifts based on the image contrast maximization technique for subsequent compensation at the data focusing stage. Results on real data acquired by the COSMO-SkyMed sensor demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solution. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Testing innovative procedures and techniques to update landslide inventory maps is a timely topic widely discussed in the scientific literature. In this regard remote sensing techniques - such as the Synthetic Aperture Radar Differential Interferometry (DInSAR) - can provide a valuable contribution to studies concerning slow-moving landslides in different geological contexts all over the world. In this paper, DInSAR data are firstly analysed via an innovative approach aimed at enhancing both the exploitation and the interpretation of remote sensing information; then, they are complemented with the results of an accurate analysis of surveyrecorded damage to facilities due to slow-moving landslides. In particular, after being separately analysed to provide independent landslide movement indicators, the two datasets are combined in a DInSAR-Damage matrix which can be used to update the state of activity of slow-moving landslides. Moreover, together with the information provided by geomorphological maps, the two datasets are proven to be useful in detecting unmapped phenomena. The potentialities of the adopted procedure are tested in an area of southern Italy where slow-moving landslides are widespread and accurately mapped by using geomorphological criteria. [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]