2,772 research outputs found
SUPPORTO NUTRIZIONALE CON LA PEG NEI TRAPIANTI DI FEGATO CUORE E POLMONE D. Neri, A. Da Riva*, P. Boccagni , M. Loy, P. Feltracco, F. D’Amico, F. D’Amico, E. Gringeri, F. D’Amico, A. Vitale, F.E. D’Amico, M. Polacco, A. Bertacco, G. Noaro, U. Cillo, Padova – XXXVI Congresso Nazionale SITO (Società Italiana Trapianti d’Organo), Torino 18-20 Ottobre 2012
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Dry grasslands of Hippocrepido glaucae-Stipion austroitalicae in the Pollino Massif (Calabria, Italy)
No full textRocky pastures dominated by Stipa austroitalica in the south-east of Italy were classified within an endemic alliance, Hippocrepido glaucae-Stipion austroitalicae, originally assigned to a Balkan order
(Scorzoneretalia villosae). Actually, the distribution area of S. austroitalica extends further westwards and large patches are found on the south-east side of the Pollino Massif. This study aims to describe and characterise the plant communities dominated by S. austroitalica in this area and analyse their floristic and chorological relationships with other associations of Hippocrepido-Stipion. Moreover, their syntaxonomy is discussed in the context of the Italian and south European dry grasslands biogeography. The grasslands were studied on the basis of 19 phytosociological relevés. A larger data set, including 185 relevés with S. austroitalica, was used to visualise the relationships among the associations through nonmetric multi-dimensional scaling ordination. The results allowed the description of a new association, Bupleuro gussonei-Stipetum austroitalicae, classifi ed within Hippocrepido-Stipion. As a consequence, the alliance synrange was extended up to the Pollino Massif. The Hip pocrepido-Stipion, together with Cytiso spinescentis-Bromion erecti, was arranged in Euphorbietalia myrsinitidis, an endemic order of the Italian peninsula. The proposed scheme upgrades the syntaxonomy and nomenclature of the dry grasslands vegetation of central and southern Italy
A proposal of a new nomogram for predicting upstaging in contemporary D’Amico low-risk prostate cancer patients
No full textPurpose: Unfavorable prostate cancer (PCa) disease at final pathology affects at least 10 % of D’Amico low-risk patients. Thus, conservative therapies including active surveillance may be wrongfully applied. The purposes were to assess the rate of upstaging in a contemporary cohort of D’Amico low-risk PCa patients and to develop and externally validate a nomogram as upstaging prediction tool in two European cohorts. Methods: Analyses were restricted to 2007 patients who harbored low-risk PCa at ≥10-cores initial biopsy according to D’Amico classification (PSA <10.0 ng/ml, Gleason score <7 and clinical stage ≤T2a). Patients underwent radical prostatectomy at a high-volume center in Hamburg, Germany, from 2010 to 2015. The Hamburg cohort was randomly divided into development (n = 1338) and validation cohorts (n = 669). The development cohort was used to devise a nomogram predicting upstaging, defined as presence of ≥pT3 and/or lymph node invasion. The nomogram was externally validated in two European validation cohorts (Hamburg, n = 669; Milan, n = 465). Results: Upstaging was observed in 187/1338 (14.0 %) of low-risk patients. In multivariable models, four of ten tested variables achieved independent predictor status: age (OR 1.07, 95 % CI 1.04–1.09), PSA (OR 1.21, 95 % CI 1.12–1.31), prostate volume (OR 0.97, 95 % CI 0.96–0.98) and percentage of positive cores (OR 1.02, 95 % CI 1.01–1.03). In external validation, the nomogram demonstrated 70.8 % (Hamburg) and 70.0 % (Milan) accuracy, respectively, with excellent concordance between predicted and observed values. Conclusions: Our proposed nomogram is capable to accurately identify D’Amico low-risk patients at risk of upstaging, utilizing four routinely available clinical variables, age, PSA, prostate volume and percentage of positive biopsy cores. Patient summary: Unfavorable prostate cancer disease at final pathology affects at least 10 % of D’Amico low-risk patients. Thus, we developed and externally validated a new nomogram based on contemporary low-risk prostate cancer patients to accurately identify D’Amico low-risk patients at risk of upstaging. It utilizes four routine variables, age, PSA, prostate volume and percentage of positive biopsy cores
Climatic influence on pedogenesis and element availability in alpine soils on serpentinite (Aosta Valley, Italy)
No full textThe climatic influence on soil properties is important on ophiolites: large quantities of toxic metals can be released, mobilized or immobilized in relation with different climates. A different leaching intensity also influences the available Ca/Mg ratio, an important factor in serpentine ecology.
In the Aosta Valley, north-western Italian Alps, different climates are found at short distances, due to specific orography. Mediterranean air masses increase rainfall throughout the year in the south-eastern sector: in Champorcher (1427 m a.s.l.), the average rainfall is 1185mm/y; 83 mm normally fall in July (the driest summer month). Rain-shadow effects influence the drier central sector: in Torgnon (1500 m a.s.l.), normally, precipitation is 620 mm/y; 40 mm fall in summer months (inner-alpine climate).
The temperature decrease (0.65°C/100m) and the precipitation increase with elevation are further sources of variability.
We compared the active pedogenetic processes the chemical properties (available Ca, Mg, Ni) and the speciation of heavy metals in soils formed on serpentinite in areas with a different rainfall amount and seasonal pattern.
Soil development is highest under subalpine forests: in the south-eastern valleys, soils are dominated by podzolization, they are extremely acidic and Mg and heavy metals are strongly leached. In the inner-alpine area, weathering exists but leaching is inhibited; soil pH is close to neutrality, Mg dominates the exchange complex and heavy metals are concentrated.
At lower altitudes, leached and acidic Cambisols are found in the “humid areas”, while weakly developed, alkaline Regosols are found in the inner-alpine valleys
Beyond D’Amico risk classes for predicting recurrence after external beam radiotherapy for prostate cancer: the Candiolo classifier
No full textBackground: The aim of this work is to develop an algorithm to predict recurrence in prostate cancer patients treated with radical radiotherapy, getting up to a prognostic power higher than traditional D’Amico risk classification.Methods: Two thousand four hundred ninety-three men belonging to the EUREKA-2 retrospective multi-centric database on prostate cancer and treated with external-beam radiotherapy as primary treatment comprised the study population. A Cox regression time to PSA failure analysis was performed in univariate and multivariate settings, evaluating the predictive ability of age, pre-treatment PSA, clinical-radiological staging, Gleason score and percentage of positive cores at biopsy (%PC). The accuracy of this model was checked with bootstrapping statistics. Subgroups for all the variables’ combinations were combined to classify patients into five different “Candiolo” risk-classes for biochemical Progression Free Survival (bPFS); thereafter, they were also applied to clinical PFS (cPFS), systemic PFS (sPFS) and Prostate Cancer Specific Survival (PCSS), and compared to D’Amico risk grouping performances.Results: The Candiolo classifier splits patients in 5 risk-groups with the following 10-years bPFS, cPFS, sPFS and PCSS: for very-low-risk 90 %, 94 %, 100 % and 100 %; for low-risk 74 %, 88 %, 94 % and 98 %; for intermediate-risk 60 %, 82 %, 91 % and 92 %; for high-risk 43 %, 55 %, 80 % and 89 % and for very-high-risk 14 %, 38 %, 56 % and 70 %. Our classifier outperforms D’Amico risk classes for all the end-points evaluated, with concordance indexes of 71.5 %, 75.5 %, 80 % and 80.5 % versus 63 %, 65.5 %, 69.5 % and 69 %, respectively.Conclusions: Our classification tool, combining five clinical and easily available parameters, seems to better stratify patients in predicting prostate cancer recurrence after radiotherapy compared to the traditional D’Amico risk classes
First In-orbit Experience of TerraSAR-X Flight Dynamics Operations
No full textTerraSAR-X is an advanced synthetic aperture radar satellite system for scientific and commercial applications that is realized in a public-private partnership between the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Astrium GmbH. TerraSAR-X was launched at June 15, 2007 on top of a Russian DNEPR-1 rocket into a 514 km sun-synchronous dusk-dawn orbit with an 11-day repeat cycle and will be operated for a period of at least 5 years during which it will provide high resolution SAR-data in the X-band.
Due to the objectives of the interferometric campaigns the satellite has to comply to tight orbit control requirements, which are formulated in the form of a 250 m toroidal tube around a pre-flight determined reference trajectory. The acquisition of the reference orbit was one of the main and key activities during the Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) and had to compensate for both injection errors and spacecraft safe mode attitude control thruster activities.
The paper summarizes the activities of GSOC flight dynamics team during both LEOP and early Commissioning Phase, where the main tasks have been 1) the first-acquisition support via angle-tracking and GPS-based orbit determination, 2) maneuver planning for target orbit acquisition and maintenance, and 3) precise orbit and attitude determination for SAR processing support. Furthermore, a presentation on the achieved results and encountered problems will be addressed
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