This focused study aimed to generate a fully polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data set of 1 m resolution based on the spotlight and stripmap COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) satellite data fusion. The ...results show the feasibility of overcoming the limitation of the nominal 3 m resolution generated by a series of multi-temporal stripmap SAR data observed in all the polarisations. The CSK satellite system does not allow the observation of cross-polar data in the spotlight acquisition mode because only co-polar data are available. In this work, a fully polarimetric scattering matrix is estimated by using two spotlights in the horizontal horizontal (HH) and vertical vertical (VV) polarisations and two stripmaps in the horizontal vertical (HV) and vertical horizontal (VH) polarisations. The stripmaps were resampled and super-resolved by using the amplitude and phase estimation of sinusoids (APES) filter to achieve the spotlight resolution. The results show that the proposed strip-spot approach has immediate operative applications.
The Truckee/Carson Basin, like other semiarid basins in the western United States, faces challenges to water management and planning under a changing climate. We analyzed tree‐ring data, along with ...instrumental climatic and hydrologic records, to provide a perspective on extreme drought in the 21st century. Drought indices highlighted a recent increase in the average duration of hydroclimatic episodes: in the new millennium average duration was 74% longer for the 24‐month Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI‐24) and 62% longer for the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) than in the previous century. Average snow water equivalent (SWE) declined 7% per decade from 1965 to 2018. The 2012‐2015 drought, in particular, stood out for its intensity and expression in snowpack, streamflow, and drought indices. Likely because of recent warming, this 4‐year drought event had a very low likelihood based on observed Carson River flows from the first half of the 20th century. A 501‐year tree‐ring reconstruction (1500‐2000 CE) of average water‐year streamflow for the Carson River indicated that positive (wet) spells had slightly longer duration (mean of 2.7 years and range from 1 to 10 years) than negative (dry) intervals (mean of 2.4 years and range from 1 to 9 years). The early 1900s pluvial, that is, 1905‐1911 in this record, was the third strongest episode in the entire reconstruction. The driest years were 1580 and 1934, both well‐known widespread and severe droughts in the western United States. Noise‐added reconstructions suggest that 2012‐2015, while not unique in the 401 years prior to the start of the Carson River gaged flows in 1901, was a less than one‐in‐a‐century event.
Key Points
Increasing drought duration on the Carson River has characterized the transition from the first to the second millennium
Tree‐ring chronologies show that the 2012‐2015 drought on the Carson River is a less than one‐in‐a‐century event
Recent warming has exacerbated the hydrologic impact of 21st century precipitation droughts on the Carson River
The impacts of climate extremes on terrestrial ecosystems are poorly understood but important for predicting carbon cycle feedbacks to climate change. Coupled climate–carbon cycle models typically ...assume that vegetation recovery from extreme drought is immediate and complete, which conflicts with the understanding of basic plant physiology. We examined the recovery of stem growth in trees after severe drought at 1338 forest sites across the globe, comprising 49,339 site-years, and compared the results with simulated recovery in climate-vegetation models. We found pervasive and substantial "legacy effects" of reduced growth and incomplete recovery for 1 to 4 years after severe drought. Legacy effects were most prevalent in dry ecosystems, among Pinaceae, and among species with low hydraulic safety margins. In contrast, limited or no legacy effects after drought were simulated by current climate-vegetation models. Our results highlight hysteresis in ecosystem-level carbon cycling and delayed recovery from climate extremes.
The 3q29 deletion is a rare copy number variant associated with neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders, including a >40-fold increased risk for schizophrenia. Current understanding of the ...clinical phenotype is derived primarily from published cases of patients in childhood or early adolescence. Symptoms include mild to moderate learning disability, developmental delay, facial dysmorphism, microcephaly, ocular disorders, and gastrointestinal abnormalities. There is, however, a lack of detailed longitudinal case studies describing 3q29 deletion syndrome in adults with psychosis. In this case report, we describe the lifetime clinical portrait of a 57-year-old woman with 3q29 deletion syndrome, treatment-resistant psychotic symptoms, multiple medical comorbidities, and a previously unreported co-occurrence of early-onset dementia.
This study investigates the interplay between plastic and reconstructive surgery patients and their respective caregivers in the Day Surgery Unit of Policlinico Umberto I, Rome, Italy. Utilizing a ...dual survey approach, we explored the role in patient safety and the challenges faced by caregivers during the perioperative period. This study, conducted at Policlinico Umberto I, covers all surgical procedures from October to December 2023, encompassing skin cancer removal, fat grafting, scar revisions, hand surgeries, and eyelid surgeries. Patient demographics reflect varying age distributions: 18-39 (4.9%), 40-59 (31.7%), 60-75 (34.1%), and over 76 years (29.3%).
Background
Lichen sclerosus is a chronic relapsing inflammatory skin disease, which involves most commonly the anogenital region. The gold standard in treatment is ultra‐potent topical steroids ...(clobetasol propionate): it aims at controlling the symptoms, stopping further scarring and distortion, and reducing the risk of cancer.
Objectives
The aim of this preliminary study is to evaluate the efficacy of injecting Hybrid Cooperative Complexes of Hyaluronic Acid (HCC) for the treatment of vulvar lichen sclerosus (VLS).
Methods
Twenty female adult patients (range: 21–78 years), aged over 18, with histopathological diagnosis of lichen sclerosus and good general conditions were enrolled. Patients underwent HCC infiltration every month, for 3 times. Patients were evaluated at baseline (T0) and after one (T1) and six months (T2) after treatment. During every visit, each patient was studied clinically and with videothermography. Itching, burning sensation, pain, and dyspareunia were reported by patients at T0, T1, and T2. The effectiveness of the treatment on patients’ quality of life and sexual function was evaluated using the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) and the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) at T0 and at T2.
Results
The results of this preliminary study are very promising, in fact, all patients had a significant reduction in most symptoms after 1 and 6 months of HCC treatment. The reduction of patients with itching (p value ≤ 0.001), pain (p value = 0.031), and burning sensation (p = 0.004) at 6 months is significant. The analysis of DLQI scores revealed a significant improvement in patients’ quality of life. At baseline, the average score of DLQI (±SD) was 5.89 ± 3.68 while at follow‐up it was 3.42 ± 2.36 (p = 0.002).
Conclusions
Our preliminary study has demonstrated the validity and tolerability of HCC infiltrations in patients with VLS, and the effectiveness of HCC in reducing symptoms and, thus, to improve sexuality and patient quality of life.
Climate in the North Pacific and North American sectors has experienced interdecadal shifts during the twentieth century. A network of recently developed tree-ring chronologies for Southern and Baja ...California extends the instrumental record and reveals decadal-scale variability back to 1661. The Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) is closely matched by the dominant mode of tree-ring variability that provides a preliminary view of multiannual climate fluctuations spanning the past four centuries. The reconstructed PDO index features a prominent bidecadal oscillation, whose amplitude weakened in the late l700s to mid-1800s. A comparison with proxy records of ENSO suggests that the greatest decadal-scale oscillations in Pacific climate between 1706 and 1977 occurred around 1750, 1905, and 1947.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Abstract
Background
It remains unknown why ~30% of patients with psychotic disorders fail to respond to treatment. Previous genomic investigations of treatment-resistant psychosis have been ...inconclusive, but some evidence suggests a possible link between rare disease-associated copy number variants (CNVs) and worse clinical outcomes in schizophrenia. Here, we identified schizophrenia-associated CNVs in patients with treatment-resistant psychotic symptoms and then compared the prevalence of these CNVs to previously published schizophrenia cases not selected for treatment resistance.
Methods
CNVs were identified using chromosomal microarray (CMA) and whole exome sequencing (WES) in 509 patients with treatment-resistant psychosis (a lack of clinical response to ≥3 adequate antipsychotic medication trials over at least 5 years of psychiatric hospitalization). Prevalence of schizophrenia-associated CNVs in this sample was compared to that in a previously published large schizophrenia cohort study.
Results
Integrating CMA and WES data, we identified 47 cases (9.2%) with at least one CNV of known or possible neuropsychiatric risk. 4.7% (n = 24) carried a known neurodevelopmental risk CNV. The prevalence of well-replicated schizophrenia-associated CNVs was 4.1%, with duplications of the 16p11.2 and 15q11.2-q13.1 regions, and deletions of the 22q11.2 chromosomal region as the most frequent CNVs. Pairwise loci-based analysis identified duplications of 15q11.2-q13.1 to be independently associated with treatment resistance.
Conclusions
These findings suggest that CNVs may uniquely impact clinical phenotypes beyond increasing risk for schizophrenia and may potentially serve as biological entry points for studying treatment resistance. Further investigation will be necessary to elucidate the spectrum of phenotypic characteristics observed in adult psychiatric patients with disease-associated CNVs.
Aims
Lake Louise Criteria (LLC) are time-dependent and some acute myocarditis (AM) with preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) could be missed, due to the limited accessibility of ...Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (CMR). We aimed to assess the potential value of cardiac strain measured by feature tracking (FT) imaging in this population.
Methods and results
Eighty-three patients with clinically suspected AM and normal LVEF were divided into 39 “confirmed AM” (positive LLC) and 44 “suspected AM” (negative LLC). An age and gender-matched sample of 42 normal subjects underwent CMR. In all groups, FT-derived biventricular strains and STE- global longitudinal strain (GLS) were assessed, being regularly measurable. Strain values < 5th percentile of the control group were considered abnormal. “Suspected” and “confirmed” AM were similar, except for medium time of CMR evaluation (5.2 vs 1 months from presentation, respectively;
p
= 0.004). Compared to healthy controls, both “suspected” and “confirmed” AM showed significantly impaired strain values. LV-global circumferential strain (GCS), right ventricular GCS and LV-GLS were abnormal in 15.4% and 15.9%, 20.5% and 15.9%, 7.7% and 9.1% in “confirmed” and “suspected” AM, respectively. STE analysis confirmed the results on LV-GLS, however a weak correlation emerged between STE and CMR-FT LV-GLS (
p
= 0.08).
Conclusions
Compared to STE, CMR-FT analysis provided a more comprehensive and complementary biventricular strain evaluation that resulted similar in “confirmed” and “suspected” AM with normal LVEF. Conversely, mostly biventricular GCS was significantly reduced in up to 20% of patients, compared to healthy controls.
Graphic abstract
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