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Raised emissions of biologically reactive nitrogen (N) have intensified N deposition, enhancing tree productivity globally. Nonetheless, the drivers of forest sensitivity to N deposition remain unknown. We used stem growth data from 62,000 trees across Europe combined with N deposition data to track the effects of air temperature and precipitation on tree growth's sensitivity to N deposition and how it varied depending on leaf form over the past 30 years. Overall, N deposition enhanced conifer growth (until 30 kg N ha -1  yr -1 ) while decreasing growth for broadleaved angiosperms. Lower temperatures led to higher growth sensitivity to N deposition in conifers potentially exacerbated by N limitation. In contrast, higher temperatures stimulated growth sensitivity to N deposition for broadleaves. Higher precipitation equally increased N deposition sensitivity in all leaf forms. We conclude that air temperature and leaf form are decisive in disentangling the effect of N deposition in European forests, which provides crucial information to better predict the contribution of N deposition to land carbon sink enhancement., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest We declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background and Objectives: The aim of this study is to develop a radiomic and deep learning-based signature for survival analysis of patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer., Methods: Four-hundred twenty-two patients from "Lung1" dataset were included in the study. A 3D convolutional autoencoder (AE) was built and features from the latent space extracted for further analysis. Radiomic features were derived from the 3D volume of the tumor region using PyRadiomics. Both radiomic and AE-based features underwent feature selection, by removing: i) highly correlated and ii) constant features. The selected variables were then used to derive both mono-domain (radiomics, AE and clinic) and multi-domain signatures fitting a Cox Proportional Hazard model with LASSO penalization and evaluated considering the concordance (C)-index as performance metric., Results: Both mono-domain and multi-domain signatures could significantly differentiate high risk from low risk patients. Among the mono-domain signatures, the highest hazard ratio (HR) in the test set was obtained using radiomics (HR = 1.5428) followed by the AE-based signature (HR = 1.5012) and the clinical signature (HR = 1.4770). The best overall performance was achieved by combining all three signatures, resulting in the highest HR (HR = 1.7383), while the combination of AE-based and clinical signatures yielded the highest C-index (C-index = 0.6309)., Conclusions: These preliminary results show that combining information carried by AE, radiomic and clinical domain shows potential for improving the prediction of overall survival in NSCLC patients., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Meri Ferretti reports financial support was provided by Italian Minister of Health. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

The implementation of advanced recycling techniques represents a key strategy for mitigating the mismanagement and the environmental impact of plastic waste. A limited array of plastic polymers can be efficiently recycled, while a notable portion of plastic waste remains unrecyclable. In Italy, this residual, heterogeneous fraction is referred to as Plasmix. Because of its complexity and non-homogeneous composition, Plasmix is primarily directed towards low-value applications. However, recent developments in laboratory-scale mechanical recycling have enabled the creation of new plastic materials from Plasmix. Prior to their application, these materials must undergo rigorous eco-safety evaluation. The present study aims to assess the potential toxicity of microplastics (MPs) from Plasmix-based materials on the freshwater crustacean Daphnia magna. Specifically, this study investigated sub-individual and individual effects induced by a 21-day exposure to different concentrations of MPs generated from the grinding of naïve and Additivated Plasmix-based materials (hereafter referred to as Px-MPs and APx-MPs, respectively). Sub-individual endpoints focused on changes in oxidative status, including the modulation of antioxidant and detoxifying enzyme activities, as well as oxidative damage, such as lipid peroxidation. Individual level endpoints included alterations in survival and reproduction. Microscopy analyses confirmed the ingestion of both Px-MPs and APx-MPs by D. magna individuals. An oxidative stress condition raised in organisms exposed to Px-MPs, whereas no effect was observed in individuals exposed to APx-MPs. Although survival was not affected, a significant impairment in reproductive output was detected at the end of exposure to all the concentrations of both MP types. These findings suggest that even low concentrations of Px-MPs and APx-MPs could negatively affect the health status of D. magna, underscoring the need for further research to complete the risk assessment of Plasmix-based materials prior to their use in consumer products., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:Marco Parolini reports financial support was provided by University of Milan. Marco Parolini reports a relationship with University of Milan that includes: employment. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Although many studies highlighted the potential of COVID-19 to reshape existing models of wildlife management, empirical research on this topic has been scarce, particularly in Europe. We investigated the potential of COVID-19 pandemic to accelerate the ongoing decline in an aging population of recreational hunters in Italy. Namely, we modelled spatiotemporal trends between 2011 and 2021 in the number of recreational hunters in 50 Italian provinces with a varying incidence of COVID-19, and temporally delayed waves of infection. Compared to projections from 2011-2019 data, we detected a lower number of hunters who enrolled for the hunting season, both in 2020 (14 provinces) and in 2021 (15 provinces). The provinces with the highest incidence of COVID-19 in the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions were also those experiencing the most marked decrease in hunting participation. Our findings revealed that a wildlife management system based on recreational hunting can be rapidly destabilized by epidemics and their associated public health measures, particularly when the average age of hunters is high, like in Italy. Considered the high incidence attained by COVID-19 in many European countries, where hunters are pivotal for the management of large ungulates and where they were already declining before the pandemic, our findings call for further large-scale research about the impact of COVID-19 on hunting participation., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Cerri et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: Hallux valgus (lateral angulation of the great toe towards the lesser toes, commonly known as bunions) presents in 23% to 35% of the population. This condition leads to poor balance and increases the risk of falling, adding to the difficulty in fitting into shoes and pain. Conservative (non-surgical) interventions treating pain rather than curing deformity are usually first-line treatments. When surgery is indicated, the overall best surgical procedure is an ever-evolving topic of discussion., Objectives: To assess the benefits and harms of different types of surgery compared with placebo or sham surgery, no treatment, non-surgical treatments and other surgical interventions for adults with hallux valgus., Search Methods: We searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase and trial registries to 20 April 2023. We did not apply any language or publication restrictions., Selection Criteria: We included randomised controlled trials evaluating surgical interventions for treating hallux valgus compared to placebo surgery or sham surgery, no treatment, non-surgical treatment or other surgical interventions. The major outcomes were pain, function, quality of life, participant global assessment of treatment success, reoperation (treatment failure), adverse events and serious adverse events., Data Collection and Analysis: Two review authors independently selected studies for inclusion, extracted data, and assessed risk of bias and the certainty of evidence using GRADE., Main Results: We included 25 studies involving 1597 participants with hallux valgus. All studies included adults and most were women. One study compared surgery (V-shaped osteotomy) with no treatment and with non-surgical treatment. Fifteen studies compared different surgical techniques, including a V-shaped osteotomy (Chevron osteotomy), to other types of osteotomy. Nine studies compared different simple osteotomy techniques to each other or to a mid-shaft Z-shaped osteotomy (Scarf osteotomy). Most trials were susceptible to bias: in particular, selection (80%), performance (88%), detection (96%) and selective reporting (64%) biases. Surgery versus no treatment Surgery may result in a clinically important reduction in pain. At 12 months, mean pain was 39 points (0 to 100 visual analogue scale, 100 = worst pain) in the no treatment group and 21 points in the surgery group (mean difference (MD) -18.00, 95% confidence interval (CI) -26.14 to -9.86; 1 study, 140 participants; low-certainty evidence). Evidence was downgraded for bias due to lack of blinding and imprecision. Surgery may result in a slight increase in function. At 12 months, mean function was 66 points (0 to 100 American Orthopedics Foot and Ankle Scale (AOFAS), 100 = best function) in the no treatment group and 75 points in the surgery group (MD 9.00, 95% CI 5.16 to 12.84; 1 study, 140 participants; low-certainty evidence). Evidence was downgraded for bias due to lack of blinding and imprecision. Surgery may result in little to no difference in quality of life. At 12 months, mean quality of life (0 to 100 on 15-dimension scale, 100 = higher quality of life) was 93 points in both groups (MD 0, 95% CI -2.12 to 2.12; 1 study, 140 participants; low-certainty evidence). Evidence was downgraded for bias due to lack of blinding and imprecision. Surgery may result in a slight increase in participant global assessment of treatment success. At 12 months, mean participant global assessment of treatment success was 61 points (0 to 100 visual analogue scale, 100 = completely satisfied) in the no treatment group and 80 points in the surgery group (MD 19.00, 95% CI 8.11 to 29.89; 1 study, 140 participants; low-certainty evidence). Evidence was downgraded for bias due to lack of blinding and imprecision. Surgery may have little effect on reoperation (relative effect was not estimable), adverse events (risk ratio (RR) 8.75, 95% CI 0.48 to 159.53; 1 study, 140 participants; very low-certainty evidence), and serious adverse events (relative effect was not estimable), but we are uncertain. Surgery versus non-surgical treatment Surgery may result in a clinically important reduction in pain; a slight increase in function and participant global assessment of treatment success; and little to no difference in quality of life (1 study, 140 participants; low-certainty evidence). We are uncertain about the effect on reoperation, adverse events and serious adverse events (1 study, 140 participants; very low-certainty evidence). Complex versus simple osteotomies Complex osteotomies probably result in little to no difference in pain compared with simple osteotomies (7 studies, 414 participants; moderate-certainty evidence). Complex osteotomies may increase reoperation (7 studies, 461 participants; low-certainty evidence), and may result in little to no difference in participant global assessment of treatment success (8 studies, 462 participants; low-certainty evidence) and serious adverse events (12 studies; data not pooled; low-certainty evidence). We are uncertain about the effect of complex osteotomies on function and adverse events (very low-certainty evidence). No study reported quality of life., Authors' Conclusions: There were no trials comparing surgery to placebo or sham. Surgery may result in a clinically important reduction in pain when compared to no treatment or non-surgical treatment. Surgery may also result in a slight increase in function and participant global assessment of treatment success compared to no treatment or non-surgical treatment. There may be little to no difference in quality of life between surgery and no treatment or non-surgical treatment. We are uncertain about the effect of surgery on reoperation (treatment failure), adverse events or serious adverse events, when compared to no treatment or non-surgical treatment. Complex and simple osteotomies demonstrated similar results for pain. Complex osteotomies may increase reoperation (treatment failure) and may result in little to no difference in participant global assessment of treatment success and serious adverse events compared to simple osteotomies. We are uncertain about the effect of complex osteotomies on function, quality of life and adverse events., (Copyright © 2024 The Cochrane Collaboration. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Background: The role of strengthening the lower limbs to optimize the biomechanics of the hip, knee and ankle during walking in patients with knee osteoarthritis, is still unclear. This study aimed to analyse the walking biomechanics of individuals with symptomatic mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis before and after a simplified lower limb resistance training protocol, focused on knee joint exercises with individualized load., Methods: Forty-one patients with symptomatic and radiographic mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis underwent 3D gait analysis pre-post 8 weeks lower limb resistance training protocol performed 3 times a week. Parameters investigated were spatiotemporal, sagittal range of motion, flexion and extension minimum and maximum values, power and moment of hip, knee and ankle, as well as self-reported pain and physical function by the Western Ontario MacMaster University Osteoarthritis Index. Paired t test, Wilcoxon, Spearman's correlation and a logistic model were used for statistical analysis, with p < 0.05. Pain improvement more than 2 points was considered clinically relevant. The effect size (ES) was calculated using Cohen's d., Results: Post protocol walking speed increased 6.7% (ES: 0.711), cadence 3.7% (ES: 0.655), stride length 2.6% (ES: 0.542), and double support time reduced 6.9% (ES:0.459). It was also observed a significant increase in one maximum repetition test for legpress 46%, knee extension 23% and knee flexion chair 27% (p < 0.001). Patients reported a 62.5% reduction in pain (ES:1.518) and 64.9% improvement in physical function (ES:1.376). 82% of the patients presented more than 2 points improvement in pain. No evidence of strong correlations between pain, strength gains and gait parameters were found., Conclusions: There was a significant and clinical improvement of spatiotemporal gait parameters, pain, physical function, and strength after 8-week lower limb resistance training protocol. Patients who had a clinically relevant pain improvement presented better gait performance., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declared that they have no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 The Japanese Orthopaedic Association. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The length of 3' untranslated regions (3'UTR) is highly regulated during many transitions in cell state, including T cell activation, through the process of alternative polyadenylation (APA). However, the regulatory mechanisms and functional consequences of APA remain largely unexplored. Here we present a detailed analysis of the temporal and condition-specific regulation of APA following activation of primary human CD4 + T cells. We find that global APA changes are regulated temporally and CD28 costimulatory signals enhance a subset of these changes. Most APA changes upon T cell activation involve 3'UTR shortening, although a set of genes enriched for function in the mTOR pathway exhibit 3'UTR lengthening. While upregulation of the core polyadenylation machinery likely induces 3'UTR shortening following prolonged T cell stimulation; a significant program of APA changes occur prior to cellular proliferation or upregulation of the APA machinery. Motif analysis suggests that at least a subset of these early changes in APA are driven by upregulation of RBM3, an RNA-binding protein which competes with the APA machinery for binding. Together this work expands our understanding of the impact and mechanisms of APA in response to T cell activation and suggests new mechanisms by which APA may be regulated., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Aim: Recent literature has shown epidemiological changes in bronchiolitis with an increased incidence in the post-SARS-CoV-2 pandemic period but reports regarding disease severity are conflicting. We aimed to describe the epidemiology, disease severity, and microbiology of bronchiolitis during the 2022-2023 cold season compared to the previous 5 years., Methods: This single-center retrospective observational study at IRCCS Gaslini, Italy, included all children aged 0-2 years hospitalized for bronchiolitis from 1 September 2017 to 31 August 2023. Findings from the 2022-2023 season were compared to the previous 5 years., Results: We observed a statistically significant increase in the 2022-2023 season in the absolute number of bronchiolitis admissions. Children who required mechanical ventilation (MV) dramatically increased from a total of seven patients in the previous five seasons to 17 in the 2022-2023 season alone (p = .001). All other severity parameters significantly increased: the need for respiratory support (p = .002), the median length of stay (5 days vs. 4 days, p = .001), and the median duration of respiratory support (4 days vs. 3 days, p = .016)., Conclusions: We report a substantial increase in the severity of bronchiolitis in the season 2022-2023 with a remarkable number of previously healthy infants requiring MV. Further studies are needed to confirm whether our findings are an isolated phenomenon or part of a true global trend. Health systems need to be prepared and protective preventive measures should be implemented for all newborns., (© 2024 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared.

Forest soils harbor hyper-diverse microbial communities which fundamentally regulate carbon and nutrient cycling across the globe. Directly testing hypotheses on how microbiome diversity is linked to forest carbon storage has been difficult, due to a lack of paired data on microbiome diversity and in situ observations of forest carbon accumulation and storage. Here, we investigated the relationship between soil microbiomes and forest carbon across 238 forest inventory plots spanning 15 European countries. We show that the composition and diversity of fungal, but not bacterial, species is tightly coupled to both forest biotic conditions and a seven-fold variation in tree growth rates and biomass carbon stocks when controlling for the effects of dominant tree type, climate, and other environmental factors. This linkage is particularly strong for symbiotic endophytic and ectomycorrhizal fungi known to directly facilitate tree growth. Since tree growth rates in this system are closely and positively correlated with belowground soil carbon stocks, we conclude that fungal composition is a strong predictor of overall forest carbon storage across the European continent., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

In this contribution, the performance of powdered titanium dioxide (TiO 2 )-based photocatalysts was evaluated in a pilot photocatalytic plant for the degradation of different dyes, with an investigated volume of 1 L and solar simulated light as irradiation source. Five different samples, synthesized in our laboratories, were tested in the pilot plant, each consisting of TiO 2 nanoparticles (NPs) coupled with a different material (persistent luminescent material and semiconductor material) and treated in different thermal conditions. All synthesized samples have been subjected to X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis (BET), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) characterization, to shed light on the influence of introducing other materials on titania characteristics. To study and evaluate the significance of the parameters affecting the process in the pilot plant, a chemometric approach was applied, by selecting a mathematical model (D-Optimal) to simultaneously monitor a large number of variables (i.e., 7), both qualitative and quantitative, over a wide range of levels. At the same time, the recovery of the synthesized photocatalysts was studied following a novel promising recuperation method, i.e., annulling the surface charge of the suspended samples by reaching the isoelectric point (pH PZC ) of each sample, for the quantitative precipitation of TiO 2 nanoparticles., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Aim: To provide a comprehensive description of the clinical features, biochemical characteristics, and outcomes of infants up to 90 days old with COVID-19. Moreover, to assess the severity of the disease and propose an effective management pathway., Methods: Retrospective single-center study spanning three years. Patient data includes age, sex, symptoms, comorbidities, blood and urine test results, cultures, admission, length of stay, therapies, intensive care unit admission, and mortality., Results: A total of 274 patients were enrolled in the study, comprising 55% males. Among them, 60 patients (22%) were under the age of 29 days, while 214 (78%) fell within the 29 to 90 days age range. The overall incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infections was 0.28 per 10,000 Pediatric Emergency Department admissions. Blood inflammatory markers showed no significant abnormalities, and there were no recorded instances of positive blood cultures. Less than 1% of infants showed urinary tract infections with positive urine cultures, and 1.5% of patients had a concurrent RSV infection. Hospitalization rates were 83% for neonates and 67% for infants, with a median length of stay (LOS) of 48 h for both age groups. None of the patients required admission to the Pediatric or Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and only one required High Flow Nasal Cannula (HFNC). No secondary serious bacterial infections were observed, and all hospitalized patients were discharged without short-term sequelae. No deaths were reported., Discussion and Conclusions: Infants with COVID-19 generally exhibit milder or asymptomatic forms of the disease, making home management a viable option in most cases. Blood tests, indicative of a mild inflammatory response, are recommended primarily for children showing symptoms of illness. Hospitalization precautions for infants without apparent illness or comorbidities are deemed unnecessary. Given the evolving nature of experiences with COVID-19 in infants, maintaining a high level of clinical suspicion remains imperative.

The aim of this study was to describe the 2022-2023 bronchiolitis epidemic season (the second after COVID-19 pandemic and the first without social restriction), focusing on patients discharged home from a pediatric emergency department (PED) and on those revisited within 72 h. We performed a retrospective observational study in an Italian tertiary care children's hospital, reviewing PED accesses from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023. The number of hospitalizations for bronchiolitis was extracted from hospital discharge forms. A total of 512 patients diagnosed with bronchiolitis were admitted to PED (2.8% of total admissions). Accesses increased sharply from November to January, with a peak in December, in both admissions and hospitalizations. More than half of the patients (55.5%) were safely discharged home, while 38 (13.4%) came back to PED for a revisit. Overall PED accesses and hospitalizations for bronchiolitis increased since the previous epidemic season, and particularly compared to the pandemic and pre-pandemic eras. Empowering the collaboration between all healthcare provisioners is fundamental to suitable management of patients. Monitoring the epidemiology and seasonality of bronchiolitis is a starting point for an effective internal organization of pediatric departments and to further evaluate its socio-economic burden.

Many lung diseases, first, tumors, are smoking-related, and it is very likely to find more than one pattern in the same patient. Airspace enlargement with fibrosis (AEF) is one of them, but it has not been deeply understood or studied yet. In fact, we think that it might still be wrongly assimilated with other conditions that have different radiological features altogether and different prognoses. This pictorial essay is aimed at pointing out AEF so that radiologists and pulmonologists get acquainted with it and use the proper terminology, as AEF might not be that rare., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

To examine the effectiveness of Mind Over Matter (MOM), a group psychosocial intervention based on CBT, ACT, and mind-body interventions, from data collected during a quality improvement project. MOM was offered in person prior to COVID-19 and via telehealth after COVID-19 began., Distress, as measured by anxiety, depression, the severity of physical symptoms and the impact of physical symptoms on daily functioning, was measured pre- and post-MOM., The sample included 46 participants with an experience of cancer ranging in age from 31 to 75., Overall, there were significant differences in anxiety, depression, and physical symptom severity and interference pre and post MOM. The in-person intervention showed significant differences in anxiety, depression, and physical symptom interference. There were significant differences in anxiety and physical symptom severity reported in the telehealth groups., MOM may be an effective psychosocial intervention for addressing cancer-related physical and emotional challenges making it a valuable resource for institutions trying to meet needs identified by distress screenings.

This retrospective chart review study investigates the long-term clinical outcome of Biodentine® (Tricalcium silicate) as a medicament for pulpotomy in primary molars. Data in this retrospective study was collected from the dental records of all patients that had at least one primary molar receive pulpotomy treatment (CDT code: D3221) between 01 July 2012 and 01 July 2015. This data includes child's age, medical history, dental history, dental radiographs, pulpotomy procedure details and follow-up clinical notes. Kaplan-Meier Estimate was used to measure the fraction of successful pulpotomy procedures for up to 24 months. A total of 1758 pulpotomy procedures were performed on 1032 patients in our institute in the three-year period and 21.4% of them (N = 376) had follow-up dental records that qualified for the study. Eleven teeth out of 376 teeth were excluded from the statistical analysis due to loss of/broken stainless steel crowns (3.1%). Seventeen pulpotomy failures were identified out of the remaining 365 procedures. The survival probablity of using Biodentine® as a pulpotomy medicament is 96.3% for 18-month follow-up and 95.4% for 24-month follow-up. Biodentine®, a tricalcium silicate formulation, used as a pulpotomy medicament demonstrates a high clinical success rate (95.4%) over a 24-month peroid in primary molars., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest. Gerald A. Ferretti is serving as one of the Editorial Board members of this journal. We declare that Gerald A. Ferretti had no involvement in the peer review of this article and has no access to information regarding its peer review. Full responsibility for the editorial process for this article was delegated to GS., (©2024 The Author(s). Published by MRE Press.)