Team (Italy)

Alcohol consumption represents the leading cause of death and disability under the age of 24. Among the most frequent physical problems there is certainly musculoskeletal damage. This creates problems in carrying out physical activity and sports. The aim of this narrative review is to assess the size of the problem of alcohol consumption and sport, the motivations and possible solutions. This narrative review is based on a detailed analysis of the scientific literature published before June 30th, 2024 (PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar). In sporting contexts there is a higher consumption of alcoholic beverages than in the general population. Alcohol is used during moments of socialization or during the celebration of some event or anniversary. Through sponsorship, alcohol is associated with success, beauty and even health. Alcohol consumption is not compatible with sporting activities. It reduces its positive effects and limits its quality. Moreover, alcohol induces muscle, bone and brain damage. Sports clubs have a duty to address the alcohol problem. It is mandatory, on the one hand, early identification of athletes who have risky alcohol consumption and on the other, promoting education initiatives on correct lifestyles with the involvement of the community to which they belong. It is also appropriate promote with force laws that prohibit the association of alcohol consumption to sport.

Classical singing is not a homogenous basket.After two centuries of silence, since 1950s has made a comeback on the stages all over the world Early Music, comprising repertoires from the VI to half of the XVIII century.The so-called historically informed performance, which aims at playing a given piece of music as faithfully as possible to the approach and manner of the musical era in which a work was originally conceived, has developed a style of singing Early Music which has gradually differentiated it from the way we now intend the more common Western Operatic singing style.Perceptual differences when comparing Early Music and Western Operatic singing regard contrasts in intelligibility, flexibility, sound power, timbre, approach to passages of register, and vibrato features.This study focuses on differences in vibrato acoustics and formant analysis in Renaissance (1500-1600) and Western Operatic (1800) singing styles, by comparing acoustic recordings acquired from professionally trained singers specialized in the two repertoires.Possible differences will regard a less precise characterization of vowel in Western Operatic singing, resulting in an overall decrease in intelligibility, and a less pronounced singer's formant and vibrato extent in Early Music singers.

Secondary root and distal thoraco-abdominal endovascular aortic re-interventions can be challenging after frozen elephant trunk. We obtained from the TERUMO Aortic custom-made platform a Thoraflex graft with a modified disposition of the arch branches that facilitate secondary proximal and distal reinterventions. Here we describe the graft and our first implant.

Mattia Atzeni, Mikhail Plekhanov, Frederic Dreyer, Nora Kassner, Simone Merello, Louis Martin, Nicola Cancedda. Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing. 2023.

Insertion of venous access devices (VAD) is usually considered a procedure with low risk of bleeding. Nonetheless, insertion of some devices is invasive enough to be associated with bleeding, especially in patients with previous coagulopathy or in treatment with antithrombotic drugs for cardiovascular disease. The current practices of platelet/plasma transfusion in coagulopathic patients and of temporary suspension of the antithrombotic treatment before VAD insertion are based on local policies and are often inadequately supported by evidence, since many of the clinical studies on this topic are not recent and are not of high quality. Furthermore, the protocols of antithrombotic treatment have changed during the last decade, after the introduction of new oral anticoagulant drugs. Though some guidelines address some of these issues in relation with specific procedures (port insertion, etc.), no evidence-based document covering all the aspects of this clinical problem is currently available. Thus, the Italian Group of Venous Access Devices (GAVeCeLT) has decided to develop a consensus on the management of antithrombotic treatment and bleeding disorders in patients requiring VADs. After a systematic review of the available evidence, the panel of the consensus (which included vascular access specialists, surgeons, intensivists, anesthetists, cardiologists, vascular medicine experts, nephrologists, infective disease specialists, and thrombotic disease specialists) has structured the final recommendations as detailed answers to three sets of questions: (1) which is an appropriate classification of VAD-related procedures based on the specific bleeding risk? (2) Which is the appropriate management of the patient with bleeding disorders candidate to VAD insertion/removal? (3) Which is the appropriate management of the patient on antithrombotic treatment candidate to VAD insertion/removal? Only statements reaching a complete agreement were included in the final recommendations, and all recommendations were offered in a clear and synthetic list, so to be easily translated into clinical practice.

The aim of our study is to report a case of a child with subglottic thymus that was suspected during diagnostic work-up for severe airway obstruction, excised surgically and confirmed with final histopathological examination. Moreover, we performed a narrative literature review to outline clinical and diagnostic features of this rare condition and to report suggestions for the management of subglottic masses. We report the case of a 7-month-old boy who was admitted to our Pediatric Airway Team Unit due to a history of worsening biphasic stridor and recurrent episodes of upper airway obstruction. The successful diagnostic work-up and a narrative literature of analogous cases of subglottic thymus were reported. Ectopic thymus is a very rare condition in which thymic tissue is found outside the normal pathway of its embryonic migration. It usually presents as a cystic or, more rarely, solid mass, showing an indolent course toward spontaneous involution. In some cases, however, it becomes symptomatic exerting compression on surrounding vital structures. Due to its rarity, the initial diagnosis is normally mistaken with inflammatory diseases or malignancies and the definitive diagnosis is only achieved after histological examination of the excised specimen. To our knowledge, only four other cases of subglottic ectopic thymic tissue have been reported in the English literature so far and the diagnosis has never been suspected preoperatively. It is mandatory to consider ectopic thymic tissue in the differential diagnosis in children presenting with airways obstruction in order to prevent unnecessary, extensive, and exploratory surgery.

Drug delivery systems are proposed for the in situ controlled delivery of therapeutic molecules in the scope of tissue engineering. We propose herein silica nanofibers as carriers for the loading and release of bioactive proteins. The influence of pH, time and concentration on the amount of adsorbed proteins was studied. The interactions allowing loading were then studied by means of electron microscopy, zeta potential measurements, electron energy loss spectroscopy and attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared analysis. Release profiles were determined and biological activities were enzymatically assessed. The first part of the work was carried out with lysozyme as a model protein, and then bioactive growth factors TGF-β1 and GDF-5 were used because their significance in human adipose stromal cell differentiation towards intervertebral disc nucleopulpocytes was previously assessed. It is demonstrated that protein-silica nanofiber interactions are mainly driven by hydrogen bonds and local electrostatic interactions. The present data thus provide a better understanding of the adsorption phenomenon involved, as well as a method to control protein adsorption and release. It is worth pointing out that the kinetic release of growth factors, up to 28 days, and their biological activity maintenance seem to be compatible with intervertebral disc regenerative medicine.