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Abstract Background Resveratrol is a natural polyphenolic compound present in plants and red wine with many potential health benefits. This compound has various anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor properties and can improve cellular mitochondrial activity. This trial was designed to evaluate the effect on the outcome of IVF of Resveratrol supplementation in women > 35 years with good ovarian reserve (AMH > 1.2 ng/ml). Women were randomized to receive or placebo or Resveratrol (150 mg per day) for three months preceding the ovarian stimulation (OS). All patients were stimulated with a starting dose of recombinant FSH ranging between 150 and 300 IU according to age and ovarian reserve. GnRH antagonist flexible protocol was adopted for pituitary suppression. Triggering was performed with urinary hCG (10.000 IU). Results The study was conducted between January 2019 and December 2022 with aa total of 37 cases and 33 controls were recruited. No statistically significant differences in the number of oocytes retrieved, biochemical pregnancy, clinical pregnancy and live birth rates were observed between women treated with resveratrol and control group. A statistically significant increase in the follicle output rate (FORT) and follicle-to oocyte index (FOI) was observed in women treated with resveratrol-based nutraceutical (0.92 versus 0.77 [p = 0.02], and 0.77 versus 0.64 [p = 0.006], respectively). Conclusions Preliminary results from this study indicate that pre-treatment with resveratrol may improve ovarian sensitivity to exogenous FSH, which in turn may decrease the risk of hypo-response to OS in advanced reproductive age women.

Electrocardiogram modifications in athletes are common and usually reflect structural and electrical heart adaptations to regular physical training, known as the athlete’s heart. However, these electrical modifications sometimes overlap with electrocardiogram findings that are characteristic of various heart diseases. A missed or incorrect diagnosis can significantly impact a young athlete’s life and potentially have fatal consequences during exercise, such as sudden cardiac death, which is the leading cause of death in athletes. Therefore, it is crucial to correctly distinguish between expected exercise-related electrocardiogram changes in an athlete and several electrocardiogram abnormalities that may indicate underlying heart disease. This review aims to serve as a practical guide for cardiologists and sports clinicians, helping to define normal and physiology-induced electrocardiogram findings from those borderlines or pathological, and indicating when further investigations are necessary. Therefore, the possible athlete’s electrocardiogram findings, including rhythm or myocardial adaptation, will be analyzed here, focusing mainly on the differentiation from pathological findings.

The European Union is targeting climate neutrality by 2050, with a focus on enhancing energy efficiency, expanding renewable energy sources, and reducing emissions. Within Italy’s electricity mix, bioenergy sources, namely biogas, solid biomass, and bioliquids, play a crucial territorial role. A comparative analysis was conducted through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), utilizing national data from the ARCADIA project, to assess the environmental sustainability of the investigated bioenergy chains and identify the most convenient ones. The study revealed that, among the bioenergy sources, solid biomass emerges as the most environmentally friendly option since it does not rely on dedicated crops. Conversely, biogas shows the highest environmental impact, demonstrating less favorable performance across nine out of the sixteen evaluated impact categories. The LCA underscores that the cultivation of dedicated energy crops significantly contributes to environmental burdens associated with electricity generation, affecting both biogas and bioliquids performance. The cultivation process needs water and chemical fertilizers, leading to adverse environmental effects. These findings highlight the importance of prioritizing residual biomass for energy generation over dedicated crops. Utilizing forestry and agro-industrial residues, municipal solid waste, and used cooking oils presents numerous advantages, including environmental preservation, resource conservation and recovery, as well as waste reduction.

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) encompasses all malignant neoplasms arising from the epithelial cells of the biliary tree. About 40% of CCAs are perihilar, involving the bile ducts distal to the second-order biliary branches and proximal to the cystic duct implant. About two-thirds of pCCAs are considered unresectable at the time of diagnosis or exploration. When resective surgery is deemed unfeasible, liver transplantation (LT) could be an effective alternative. The overall survival rates after LT at 1 and 3 years are 91% and 81%, respectively. The overall five-year survival rate after transplantation is 73% (79% for patients with underlying PSC and 63% for de novo pCCA). Multicenter case series reported a 5-year disease-free survival rate of ~65%. However, different protocols, including neoadjuvant therapy, have been proposed. The scarcity of organ availability represents a crucial limiting factor in recommending LT preferentially in treating pCCA. Living donor transplantations and marginal cadaveric allografts have proven to be exciting options to overcome organ shortage. Management of jaundice and cholangitis is still challenging for these patients and could impact LT listing. Whether to adopt surgical resection or LT as standard-of-care in pCCA is still a matter of debate, and more prospective studies are needed.

This article introduces two case studies of ethical fashion from Senegal and Ghana: the Africanfuturist brand Selly Raby Kane, based in Dakar, and the Slum Studio collective operating off Kantamanto Market in Accra. Both engage critically with the global politics of clothing, developing place-sensitive and art-inspired responses informed by decolonial approaches to expressive meaning to the multiple threats engendered by the global fashion system.

Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), an acute respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), is emerging as a worldwide public health emergency. Several scientific contributions reported the potential relevance of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) polymorphism and susceptibility to viruses, such as SARS-CoV. In our study, we examined a population of coeliac subjects presenting the HLA haplotype DQ2 and/or DQ8. Our aim was to evaluate whether HLA DQ2 and/or DQ8 haplotype play a role in SARS-CoV-2-infection. The aim was also to evaluate the difficulty in following the gluten-free diet due to all the adversities produced by the pandemic, such as the food supply disruption, and the difficulties in managing the clinical follow-up. Methods 191 consecutive coeliac patients completed a questionnaire on their current clinical status, psychological effects, and management of the gluten-free diet experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic and questions regarding possible SARS-CoV-2 infection. Results Out of the 191 patients who participated in the study, 42 were full-blown coeliac and 149 were in remission. From the answers provided, 84.8% of patients declared that they no longer consider themselves vulnerable to COVID-19 as they suffer from coeliac disease; 94.2% of patients did not encounter any difficulties in managing the gluten-free diet or in acquiring specific foods and 64.9% of patients in our study underwent diagnostic testing for SARS-CoV-2. Out of this number, 31.5% did so due to contacts with subjects affected by COVID-19, 26.6% for work related reasons, 11.3% due to flu-like symptoms and 30.6% for other reasons. Only 5.8% of the enrolled patients received a diagnosis of COVID-19. Out of all the patients in our population who were diagnosed with COVID-19, 94.8% developed no symptoms and none of them needed hospitalization or intensive care. Conclusion The hypothesis that the HLADQ2 and/or DQ8 haplotype plays a protective role against SARS-CoV-2 infection, as against other viral infections, is intriguingly suggestive.KEY MESSAGES COVID-19 as a public health emergency; SARS-CoV-2 and possible complications in coeliac disease; Role of HLA DQ2 and/or DQ8 in SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Background The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte (NLR), monocyte-to-lymphocyte (MLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and red blood cell distribution width (RDW) have been previously studied as predictors of survival in different malignancies.

Background: Data regarding the efficacy and tolerability of DTG/ABC/3TC/and BIC/TAF/FTC in switching strategies are still scarce. The rates and reasons of early discontinuation within 24 weeks from the switch to dolutegravir (DTG) or bictegravir (BIC) single-tablet regimens (STRs) were compared. Methods: This is a multicenter cohort study. Persons living with HIV (PLWH) with HIV-1 RNA 60 and having switched from a regimen without ABC. Conclusions: PLWH who received DTG or BIC do not show differences in VF or EDAC rates. However, EDAEs is more frequent with DTG especially in the over-sixties and in those who come from regimens without abacavir.

SERS, a clinical practice where medical doctors can monitor the drug concentration in biological fluids, has been proposed as a viable approach to therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of the antiepileptic drug Perampanel. The adoption of an acidic environment during the SERS experiments was found to be effective in enhancing the spectroscopic signal. In this work, we combine SERS experiments, conducted with a custom spinning cell in controlled acidic conditions, with DFT calculations aimed at investigating the possible protonated forms of Perampanel. The DFT-simulated Raman spectra of protonated Perampanel accounts for most of the observed SERS signals, thus explaining the effective role of protonation of the analyte. Our results suggest protonation as a viable approach to fostering SERS of alkaline drugs.

This article investigates the digitisation of ethical luxury in South Africa, focusing on the case study of the media company Twyg. Twyg’s online platform and social media accounts, particularly Instagram, participate in the production and circulation of a discourse on developmental fashion informed by principles of circularity and respect for diversity. The article discusses the communication strategy that Twyg employs to construct a positive discourse around luxury brands as drivers of a specific South African model of sustainability that pursues quality and craftsmanship, while preserving a local circular economy. The article is based on the author’s interviews with Twyg’s founder, Jackie May, and on cultural analysis of the materials published on the platform and Instagram channel. The discussion on sustainability builds on luxury studies, slow fashion studies, and the current debate on decolonialism, making a contribution to the literature on digital luxury in the global South. In particular, it expands the study of small independent actors, offering a reading that complements the more mainstream focus on big brands and international stakeholders.

In the last decades, in Campania (southern Italy), steep slopes mantled by loose air-fall pyroclastic soils have been the seat of shallow, fast, rainfall-induced landslides. The occurrence of such events has been the result of the combination of critical rainstorms and of unfavourable initial conditions determined by antecedent infiltration, evaporation, and drainage processes. In order to understand the nature of the phenomena at hand and to clarify the role of all influencing factors, an automatic monitoring station has been installed in an area already subject to a recent killer flowslide (December, 1999). The paper reports data collected in 2011 about volumetric water content and suction (used to investigate the soil water retention features) and rainfall depth and temperature (providing the boundary conditions). In particular, the installation at the same depths of tensiometers and time domain reflectometry (TDR) sensors allowed us to recognise the hysteretic nature of the wetting and drying soil response to weather forcing and its influence on the slope stability conditions. The data reported in the paper are freely available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4281166 (Comegna et al., 2020).

The clinical examination of patients often includes the observation of the existence of a close relationship between the ingestion of certain foods and the appearance of various symptoms. Until now, the occurrence of these events has been loosely defined as food intolerance. Instead, these conditions should be more properly defined as adverse food reactions (AFRs), which can consist of the presentation of a wide variety of symptoms which are commonly identified as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). In addition, systemic manifestations such as neurological, dermatological, joint, and respiratory disorders may also occur in affected patients. Although the etiology and pathogenesis of some of them are already known, others, such as non-celiac gluten sensitivity and adverse reactions to nickel-containing foods, are not yet fully defined. The study aimed to evaluate the relationship between the ingestion of some foods and the appearance of some symptoms and clinical improvements and detectable immunohistochemical alterations after a specific exclusion diet. One hundred and six consecutive patients suffering from meteorism, dyspepsia, and nausea following the ingestion of foods containing gluten or nickel were subjected to the GSRS questionnaire which was modified according to the “Salerno experts’ criteria”. All patients underwent detection of IgA antibodies to tissue transglutaminase, oral mucosal patch tests with gluten and nickel (OMPT), and EGDS, including biopsies. Our data show that GSRS and OMPT, the use of APERIO CS2 software, and the endothelial marker CD34 could be suggested as useful tools in the diagnostic procedure of these new pathologies. Larger, multi-center clinical trials could be helpful in defining these emerging clinical problems.

The long-term generation scheduling (LTGS) problem aims to build an operating policy over a multi-year planning horizon, correlating thermal generation and deficit costs with water storage. The LTGS is modeled as a linear multistage stochastic program, whose state-of-art solution is the stochastic dual dynamic programming (SDDP). One critical challenge is to represent the time-dependency of river inflows accurately. Despite recent advances, modeling simplifications are needed to allow the LTGS computational tractability via SDDP since it is necessary to increase the state space to include the time-dependent variables properly. Thus, most works simplify the hydro production function (HPF) to represent the inflows in detail to overcome this negative aspect. However, the literature lacks this trade-off, i.e., finding a balance between stochastic inflow modeling and HPF representation. Thus, this paper proposes an alternative approach to analyzing this trade-off, using the inflow aggregation and run-of-the-river energy inflow instead of individual inflow in SDDP. The proposed approach drastically reduces the number of state variables in SDDP, allowing a detailed HPF representation in the LTGS. We employ a one-sided confidence interval for expected cost estimation to show that our approach provides better performance than the individualized inflows. The analysis is performed in several large-scale computational instances using a power system with 53 geographically widespread hydro plants. The numerical results demonstrate that inflow aggregation provides, on average, a 4 % reduction on the operating cost, whereas for the run-of-the-river inflow energy, the reduction is, on average, 2 %.

The Virchow-Robin spaces (VRSs), which are often incidentally observed in modern structural neuroimaging examinations, are small cystic cavities that usually surround the small arteries and arterioles at the level of basal ganglia, the anterior perforated substance and the thalamic-mesencephalic junction. Typically, they have similar physicochemical characteristics to cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) and there is no contrast enhancement on brain CT and MRI images. Its real meaning is unknown, although some contemporary studies have suggested that it might be related to certain traumatic brain injury or several other central nervous system (CNS) disorders, as degenerative diseases. Occasionally, some wide and atypical VRS may be mistaken for primary cystic brain tumors, especially in the context of large and symptomatic lesions, multiple clustered cysts, cortical lesions and if there is adjacent reactive gliosis. The present paper reports four patients who were affected by atypical VRS mimicking brain tumors that required imaging follow-up or even a biopsy to confirm the diagnosis or to indicate the correct approach. Although it is not so unusual, one of them occurred concomitantly and adjacent to a diffuse glioma (co-deleted 1p19q, WHO-GII).

The present report describes the case of a male 17-year-old patient who progressively developed a hydrocephalus and polyradiculopathy due to involvement of central nervous system (CNS) by a diffuse leptomeningeal glioneuronal tumor (DLGNT). The tumor had partial remission in response to the treatment with radiotherapy plus procarbazine, lomustine, and vincristine (PCV) chemotherapy, and the patient had improvement in function and pain levels. The current knowledge about DLGNT, including its clinical manifestations, imaging findings, histological characteristics, and treatment are revised and discussed in the present paper.

Slope stabilization through drainage trenches is a classic approach in geotechnical engineering. Considering the low hydraulic conductivity of the soils in which this measure is usually adopted, a major constraint to the use of trenches is the time required to obtain a significant pore pressure decrease, here called time lag. In fact, especially when the slope safety factor is small, the use of drainage trenches may be a risky approach due to the probability that slope deformations will damage the system well before it will become fully operative.However, this paper shows that the presence of persistent permeable natural soil layers can provide a significant benefit by increasing drainage efficiency and reducing time lag. As a matter of fact, any permeable layer that is intercepted by trenches may operate as part of the global hydraulic system, reducing the drainage paths.A simplified approach to designing a drainage system that accounts for the presence of a persistent permeable layer is proposed. This approach, which can exploit solutions available in the literature for parallel drainage trenches, has been validated by numerical analyses.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract, the incidence of which has rapidly increased worldwide, especially in developing and Western countries. Recent research has suggested that genetic factors, the environment, microbiota, and immune responses are involved in the pathogenesis; however, the underlying causes of IBD are unclear. Recently, gut microbiota dysbiosis, especially a decrease in the abundance and diversity of specific genera, has been suggested as a trigger for IBD-initiating events. Improving the gut microbiota and identifying the specific bacterial species in IBD are essential for understanding the pathogenesis and treatment of IBD and autoimmune diseases. Here, we review the different aspects of the role played by gut microbiota in the pathogenesis of IBD and provide a theoretical basis for modulating gut microbiota through probiotics, fecal microbiota transplantation, and microbial metabolites.

As reported in the recent literature, Nickel has become an important part of our daily life since the last decades. We can find it in skincare products, occupational exposures and foods. Only recently, research has started to show a link between Nickel and many health disorders, including adverse reactions to food containing nickel. Nowadays, the relationship between nickel-containing foods and well-being is becoming a topic of growing interest in clinical practice and will play an even larger role in the future. The use of foods with a high nickel content, largely present in a gluten free diet, could explain the lack of clinical remission in celiac patients and dispel a diagnosis of refractory celiac disease.

Abstract Introduction Long-term comparative immunologic response to 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) versus 23-valent polysaccharide vaccine (PPV23) among HIV-infected adults has not yet been investigated. Methods In this prospective pilot study, we quantified in HIV-positive adults serotype-specific IgG concentrations of the 12 pneumococcal serotypes shared by both vaccines 5 years after vaccination with two doses of PCV13 8 weeks apart (group 1) or one dose of PPV23 (group 2) and compared them with those assessed prior to vaccination (BL) and after 1 year (T1). Comparison of immunogenicity was based on geometric mean concentration (GMC), proportion of individuals with ≥ twofold increase from BL in specific antibody concentration against ≥ 2 serotypes and percentage of individuals with serotype-specific IgG ≥ 0.35 μg/ml, ≥ 1 μg/ml and ≥ individual serotype-specific correlates of protection. Results We included 91 subjects (median CD4+ 650 cells/µl, > 90% with HIV-RNA

Selly Raby Kane is a renowned Senegalese fashion designer and artist involved in Africa’s booming art and design movement. Kane is an interesting case study to grasp fashion’s involvement in Africa’s current debate surrounding identity and empowerment through innovation. This article discusses Kane’s designs in light of her contribution not only to contemporary approaches to African fashion that emphasize individuality, but also to effecting change through fashion, examining the ways in which she mixes symbols, signs, and techniques of African and international cultures to inscribe Africa, and Senegal in particular, into the global fashionscape.

The POSEIDON (Patient-Oriented Strategies Encompassing IndividualizeD Oocyte Number) criteria were developed to help clinicians identify and classify low-prognosis patients undergoing assisted reproductive technology (ART) and provide guidance for possible therapeutic strategies to overcome infertility. Since its introduction, the number of published studies using the POSEIDON criteria has increased steadily. However, a critical analysis of existing evidence indicates inconsistent and incomplete reporting of critical outcomes. Therefore, we developed guidelines to help researchers improve the quality of reporting in studies applying the POSEIDON criteria. We also discuss the advantages of using the POSEIDON criteria in ART clinical studies and elaborate on possible study designs and critical endpoints. Our ultimate goal is to advance the knowledge concerning the clinical use of the POSEIDON criteria to patients, clinicians, and the infertility community.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a widespread disease throughout the world and prosthetic replacement is considered an effective and definitive treatment. However, some patients do not want or cannot undergo this type of invasive procedure due to the risk of complications. Besides, this kind of surgery is a very expensive treatment for the healthcare system. Real life studies have shown, with growing evidence, that repeated cycles of intra-articular injections of hyaluronic acid (HA) resulted in a significant reduction in pain symptoms as well as an improvement in joint function. Moreover, an important reduction in analgesics consumption was observed. Some studies have shown a delay of total knee replacement (TKR) for up to 2 years. There is minimal data available about the impact of HA injections on the delay of total hip replacement (THR). This review has also evaluated, in addition to clinical research studies, several papers with data from administrative databases suggesting that viscosupplementation possesses the potential to delay or obviate the need for surgery in patients with knee or hip OA. Further studies are necessary to understand the predictors of response, the diversity of response to different HA products, the appropriate dosage and cyclicity in relation to the radiological and clinical stage of the disease.

The long-term hydrothermal scheduling (LTHS) problem seeks to obtain an operational policy that optimizes water resource management. The most employed strategy to obtain such a policy is stochastic dual dynamic programming (SDDP). The primary source of uncertainty in predominant hydropower systems is the reservoirs inflow, usually a linear time series model (TSM) based on the order-p periodic autoregressive [PAR(p)] model. Although the linear PAR(p) can represent the seasonality and autocorrelation of the inflow datasets, negative inflows may appear during SDDP iterations, leading to water balance infeasibilities in the LTHS problem. Different from other works, the focus of this paper is not avoiding negative inflows but instead dealing with the negative values that cause infeasibilities. Hence, three strategies are discussed: (i) inclusion of a slack variable penalized in the objective function, (ii) negative inflow truncation to zero, and (iii) optimal inflow truncation, among which the latter is a novel approach. The strategies are compared individually and combined. Methodological conditions and evidence of the algorithm convergence are presented. Out-of-sample simulations show that the choice of negative inflow strategy significantly impacts the performance of the resultant operational policy. The combination of strategy (i) and (iii) reduces the expected operation cost by 15%.