Archivio Istituzionale della Ricerca - Università degli Studi della Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli"
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Surgical Treatment, Rehabilitative Approaches and Functioning Assessment for Patients Affected by Breast Cancer-Related Lymphedema: A Comprehensive Review
No full textIntroduction: Breast cancer therapy is a common cause of lymphedema. The accumulation of protein-rich fluid in the affected extremity leads to a progressive path-swelling, inflammation, and fibrosis-namely, irreversible changes. Methods: A scientific literature analysis was performed on PubMed/Medline, Scopus, Web of Science (WoS), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), and the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) from inception until 30 June 2024. Results: Breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL) is indeed an important healthcare burden both due to the significant patient-related outcomes and the overall social impact of this condition. Even though lymphedema is not life-threatening, the literature underlined harmful consequences in terms of pain, infections, distress, and functional impairment with a subsequent and relevant decrease in quality of life. Currently, since there is no cure, the therapeutic approach to BCRL aims to slow disease progression and prevent related complications. A comprehensive overview of postmastectomy lymphedema is offered. First, the pathophysiology and risk factors associated with BCRL were detailed; then, diagnosis modalities were depicted highlighting the importance of early detection. According to non-negligible changes in patients' everyday lives, novel criteria for patients' functioning assessment are reported. Regarding the treatment modalities, a wide array of conservative and surgical methods both physiologic and ablative were analyzed with their own outcomes and downsides. Conclusions: Combined strategies and multidisciplinary protocols for BCRL, including specialized management by reconstructive surgeons and physiatrists, along with healthy lifestyle programs and personalized nutritional counseling, should be compulsory to address patients' demands and optimize the treatment of this harmful and non-curable condition. The Lymphedema-specific ICF Core Sets should be included more often in the overall outcome evaluation with the aim of obtaining a comprehensive appraisal of the treatment strategies that take into account the patient's subjective score
FERTILITY AND PREGNANCY. In: Taher AT, Farmakis D, Porter JB, Cappellini MD, Musallam KM, eds. Guidelines for the Management of Transfusion-Dependent β-Thalassaemia (TDT). 5th ed. Nicosia, Cyprus: Thalassaemia International Federation; 2025.
No full textFlow patterns in a supercritical vortex drop shaft
No full textVortex drop shafts are special sewer structures through which a nearly horizontal free-surface flow is forced to rotate and turn into a swirling flow across the vertical shaft. The current design guidelines are lacking in
indications about the velocity and pressure distributions across the vertical shaft. The present research, therefore, provides new experimental data related to the flow field establishing across the vertical shaft when
the structure is approached by a supercritical flow. The study is based on a CFD modelling by carrying out 3D Volume-Of-Fluid numerical simulations. At this aim, the commercial software Flow3D was used. The
experimental program was designed to observe the hydraulic features of the swirling flow by changing the flow discharge. The preliminary results are used to show that the flow behaviour inside the shaft varied
depending on the capacity Froude number. In particular, two flow patterns are detected: the helical flow pattern and the annular flow pattern
Radiology AI and sustainability paradox: environmental, economic, and social dimensions
No full textAbstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming radiology by improving diagnostic accuracy, streamlining workflows, and enhancing operational efficiency. However, these advancements come with significant sustainability challenges across environmental, economic, and social dimensions. AI systems, particularly deep learning models, require substantial computational resources, leading to high energy consumption, increased carbon emissions, and hardware waste. Data storage and cloud computing further exacerbate the environmental impact. Economically, the high costs of implementing AI tools often outweigh the demonstrated clinical benefits, raising concerns about their long-term viability and equity in healthcare systems. Socially, AI risks perpetuating healthcare disparities through biases in algorithms and unequal access to technology. On the other hand, AI has the potential to improve sustainability in healthcare by reducing low-value imaging, optimizing resource allocation, and improving energy efficiency in radiology departments. This review addresses the sustainability paradox of AI from a radiological perspective, exploring its environmental footprint, economic feasibility, and social implications. Strategies to mitigate these challenges are also discussed, alongside a call for action and directions for future research. Critical relevance statement: By adopting an informed and holistic approach, the radiology community can ensure that AI’s benefits are realized responsibly, balancing innovation with sustainability. This effort is essential to align technological advancements with environmental preservation, economic sustainability, and social equity. Key Points: AI has an ambivalent potential, capable of both exacerbating global sustainability issues and offering increased productivity and accessibility. Addressing AI sustainability requires a broad perspective accounting for environmental impact, economic feasibility, and social implications. By embracing the duality of AI, the radiology community can adopt informed strategies at individual, institutional, and collective levels to maximize its benefits while minimizing negative impacts
Evaluation metrics in medical imaging AI: fundamentals, pitfalls, misapplications, and recommendations
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“What does 'deciphering' Cretan Hieroglyphic script mean? A few points on potentially 'inflected' sign sequences”
No full textIn the process that led to the decipherment of Linear B, the crucial role of Alice Kober’s identification of the so-called ‘triplets’ is well established. These are groups of sign sequences characterized by a common base and varying endings. Although these ‘triplets’ did not correspond to cases of two or more declensions, as Kober initially hypothesized, they were nonetheless pivotal. They confirmed that the language underlying the Linear B documentation was inflectional and, more specifically, enabled Ventris to determine which syllabograms shared identical consonantal or vocalic elements.
Turning to Cretan Hieroglyphic, it is widely acknowledged that the limited documentation available does not allow for statistical-combinatorial analysis comparable to that carried out for Linear B. Nevertheless, the existence of Cretan Hieroglyphic sequences that share most signs but differ by one or two has been noted by several scholars. Even in the case of the earliest Cretan writing, it has been proposed that such sequences could help identify terms generically described as "inflected" or displaying morphological features such as prefixes, infixes, or suffixes. To minimize the risk of accidental similarities when using this method to detect possible morphological patterns, longer sequences are preferred (e.g., those with three shared signs instead of one or two). Unfortunately, the corpus contains very few such cases, and the sequences of interest often occur on glyptic material, i.e., without contextual information. Consequently, in a study on the topic, Jean-Pierre Olivier concluded his analysis by stating:
«si, dans l’un ou l’autre des exemples qui ont été présentés, on cherche du côté d'une ‘flexions’, on pourra penser à: une marque du genre (sans choisir où est le féminin ou le masculin... ou un autre genre); une marque du nombre (sans choisir où est le pluriel ou le singulier... ou un autre nombre); une marque du temps ou du mode (dans ce cas on pourrait penser à présent/futur ou achevé/ina- chevé... ou à toute autre paire envisageable); une marque de quelque chose d'entièrement différent...» . This means that, for individual cases, more precise explanations cannot currently be provided.
However, as has been recently highlighted , at least two factors must be considered when analyzing possible cases of ‘inflection’ in Cretan Hieroglyphic. First, in sequences where only two signs are shared and a third sign is either present or absent (for instance, 031), it remains plausible that no morphological pattern is involved at all. Second, the reasoning typically applied to these hieroglyphic sequences—likely influenced by what we know from Linear B documentation—assumes that the sequences represent phonetic constructs of a syllabic nature. This assumption, however, has been questioned, given the general (and at least apparent) ‘irrationality’ with which the signs are combined, marked by significant variability in alignment and directionality.
In light of these caveat, this study aims to reanalyse all Cretan hieroglyphic sequences that share most of their signs but differ in one or two, paying particular attention to their contexts of attestation. The objective is to assess, in the first instance, whether they can plausibly represent variants of the same words and whether the differing signs can legitimately be interpreted as morphological markers, with their presence or absence being linguistically motivated
