Search Results (8)

The recent increase in parvovirus B19 (B19V) infections across Europe has underscored the need for enhanced surveillance. In Italy, B19V surveillance is not mandated nationally. This ambispective (retrospective and prospective) study aimed to assess the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of the 2024 apparent surge in the Veneto Region by implementing mandatory disease notification starting in May 2024 and collecting clinical data on confirmed cases. During the surveillance period, 3156 B19V cases were reported, with 2.9% (93/3156) requiring hospitalisation (95% CI 2.4–3.5%). Children under 1 year of age exhibited the highest hospitalisation rate (29.0%), followed by adults aged 18–40 (17.5%). Infections disproportionately affected children aged 1–5 and 6–11, and the Granger causality test showed that an increase in cases among the 1–5-year-olds was predictive of subsequent rises in other age groups (p = 0.0086). Severe complications, including myocarditis, pericarditis, and miscarriage, were observed, and one death occurred following cardiac and neurological complications in a patient without prior risk factors. The presence of concurrent pathologies, particularly haematological disorders, was associated with increased disease severity. These findings highlight the importance of early warning when cases begin rising among preschool-aged children and underscore the need for improved B19V awareness, particularly in high-risk populations. Future efforts should evaluate the feasibility of implementing a systematic, potentially EU-wide, surveillance for B19V. Full article

The purpose of this study was to investigate how lateralization shoulder angle (LSA) and distalization shoulder angle (DSA) are related to clinical and kinematic outcomes after reverse total shoulder arthroplasty. Thirty-three patients were evaluated at least six months postoperatively. The Single Assessment Numeric Evaluation (SANE), Constant Murley Score (CMS), Simple Shoulder Test (SST), and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) were used. Shoulder kinematics was evaluated with a stereophotogrammetric system. LSA and DSA inter-rater reliability was analysed through the interclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Stepwise forward linear regression analysis was conducted between LSA and DSA with clinical scales and kinematic measures, between which a correlation analysis was conducted. The inter-rater reliability for LSA (mean ICC = 0.93) and DSA (mean ICC = 0.97) results were good to excellent. Greater LSA values were associated with higher peaks of internal rotation (p = 0.012, R² = 0.188) and range of motion (ROM) (p = 0.037, R² = 0.133). SANE (p = 0.009), CMS (p = 0.031), and SST (0.026) were positively correlated to external rotation, while VAS (p = 0.020) was negatively related. Abduction peaks were positively related to CMS (p = 0.011) and SANE (p = 0.037), as well as abduction ROM (SANE, p = 0.031; CMS, p = 0.014). Full article

Pennate diatoms belonging to the genus Pseudo-nitzschia are important components of phytoplankton assemblages in aquatic environments. Among them, the bloom-forming species Pseudo-nitzschia calliantha and Pseudo-nitzschia multistriata are known as domoic acid producers, and are thus considered harmful for aquatic organisms and for human health. For these reasons, monitoring the abundance of such species, as well as identifying the growth conditions enhancing or inhibiting their growth, could help to predict eventual risks for aquatic communities and for humans by direct or indirect exposure to these toxic algae. In this work, we assessed the effects of different parameters (irradiance, temperature, salinity, and nutrients) on six Pseudo-nitzschia species by evaluating their specific growth rates and total RNA content. Our results—corroborated by statistical analyses of regression and correlation plots of control samples and samples exposed to stressful conditions, showed, as expected, a general decrease in growth rates under suboptimal levels of temperature, irradiance, salinity, and nutrient supply (especially under silicon depletion), that was usually accomplished by a general increase in RNA content inside cells. We hypothesized that increments in RNA levels in cells exposed to unfavorable conditions could be due to a relatively fast activation of the mechanisms of stress response. Full article

In the last decades, the popularity of video games has been increasing thanks to their unique ability to engage their audience and create empathy. Among them, serious games have additional purposes besides entertainment, such as learning and behaviour change. Serious games, in fact, have been successfully applied to different fields, including education, health, tourism, and cultural heritage. In this context, the paper describes a novel serious game developed for increasing awareness and promoting the Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH). In particular, the paper focuses on the Dive in the Past Serious Game which allows users to simulate a virtual dive into the Mediterranean Sea to explore accurate and life-sized 3D reconstructions of underwater archaeological sites. The purpose of the game is twofold: to engage diver and non-diver tourists into a virtual interactive exploration of underwater sites through digital storytelling and challenges; to increase awareness and knowledge on Mediterranean UCH. This work has been carried out in the context of the MeDryDive project, an EU co-funded under the COSME Programme, which aims to create personalized dry dive experiences for the promotion of Mediterranean UCH sites as distinctive tourism destinations. Full article

Given the inherent characteristics of nonlinearity and nonstationarity of iterative reconstruction algorithms in computed tomography (CT) imaging, this study aimed to perform, for the first time, a voxel-based characterization of noise properties in CT imaging with the ASiR-V and ASiR algorithms as compared with conventional filtered back projection (FBP). Multiple repeated scans of the Catphan-504 phantom were carried out. CT images were reconstructed using FBP and ASiR/ASiR-V with different blending levels of reconstruction (20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, 100%). Noise maps and their nonuniformity index (NUI) were obtained according to the approach proposed by the report of AAPM TG-233. For the homogeneous CTP486 module, ASiR-V/ASiR allowed a noise reduction of up to 63.7%/52.9% relative to FBP. While the noise reduction values of ASiR-V-/ASiR-reconstructed images ranged up to 33.8%/39.9% and 31.2%/35.5% for air and Teflon contrast objects, respectively, these values were approximately 60%/50% for other contrast objects (PMP, LDPE, polystyrene, acrylic, Delrin). Moreover, for all contrast objects but air and Teflon, ASiR-V showed a greater noise reduction potential than ASiR when the blending level was ≥40%. While noise maps of the homogenous CTP486 module showed only a slight spatial variation of noise (NUI < 5.2%) for all reconstruction algorithms, the NUI values of iterative-reconstructed images of the nonhomogeneous CTP404 module increased nonlinearly with blending level and were 19%/15% and 6.7% for pure ASiR-V/ASiR and FBP, respectively. Overall, these results confirm the potential of ASiR-V and ASiR in reducing noise as compared with conventional FBP, suggesting, however, that the use of pure ASiR-V or ASiR might be suboptimal for specific clinical applications. Full article

This paper presents a combined subjective and objective evaluation of an application mixing interactive virtual reality (VR) experience with 360° storytelling. The hypothesis that the modern immersive archaeological VR application presenting cultural heritage from a submerged site would sustain high levels of presence, immersion, and general engagement was leveraged in the investigation of the user experience with both the subjective (questionnaires) and the objective (neurophysiological recording of the brain signals using electroencephalography (EEG)) evaluation methods. Participants rated the VR experience positively in the questionnaire scales for presence, immersion, and subjective judgement. High positive rating concerned also the psychological states linked to the experience (engagement, emotions, and the state of flow), and the experience was mostly free from difficulties linked to the accustomization to the VR technology (technology adoption to the head-mounted display and controllers, VR sickness). EEG results are in line with past studies examining brain responses to virtual experiences, while new results in the beta band suggest that EEG is a viable tool for future studies of presence and immersion in VR. Full article

Images obtained in an underwater environment are often affected by colour casting and suffer from poor visibility and lack of contrast. In the literature, there are many enhancement algorithms that improve different aspects of the underwater imagery. Each paper, when presenting a new algorithm or method, usually compares the proposed technique with some alternatives present in the current state of the art. There are no studies on the reliability of benchmarking methods, as the comparisons are based on various subjective and objective metrics. This paper would pave the way towards the definition of an effective methodology for the performance evaluation of the underwater image enhancement techniques. Moreover, this work could orientate the underwater community towards choosing which method can lead to the best results for a given task in different underwater conditions. In particular, we selected five well-known methods from the state of the art and used them to enhance a dataset of images produced in various underwater sites with different conditions of depth, turbidity, and lighting. These enhanced images were evaluated by means of three different approaches: objective metrics often adopted in the related literature, a panel of experts in the underwater field, and an evaluation based on the results of 3D reconstructions. Full article

Underwater images usually suffer from poor visibility, lack of contrast and colour casting, mainly due to light absorption and scattering. In literature, there are many algorithms aimed to enhance the quality of underwater images through different approaches. Our purpose was to identify an algorithm that performs well in different environmental conditions. We have selected some algorithms from the state of the art and we have employed them to enhance a dataset of images produced in various underwater sites, representing different environmental and illumination conditions. These enhanced images have been evaluated through some quantitative metrics. By analysing the results of these metrics, we tried to understand which of the selected algorithms performed better than the others. Another purpose of our research was to establish if a quantitative metric was enough to judge the behaviour of an underwater image enhancement algorithm. We aim to demonstrate that, even if the metrics can provide an indicative estimation of image quality, they could lead to inconsistent or erroneous evaluations. Full article