IntroductionThe Coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2) outbreak spread rapidly in Italy and the lack of intensive care unit(ICU) beds soon became evident, forcing the application of noninvasive respiratory support(NRS) outside the ICU, raising concerns over staff contamination. We aimed to analyse the safety of the hospital staff, the feasibility, and outcomes of NRS applied to patients outside the ICU.MethodsIn this observational study, data from 670 consecutive patients with confirmed COVID-19 referred to the Pulmonology Units in nine hospitals between March 1st and May 10th,2020 were analysed. Data were collected including medication, mode and usage of the NRS (i.e. high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC), continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), noninvasive ventilation(NIV)), length of stay in hospital, endotracheal intubation(ETI) and deaths.ResultsForty-two health-care workers (11.4%) tested positive for infection, but only three of them required hospitalisation. Data are reported for all patients (69.3% male), whose mean age was 68 (sd 13) years. The PaO2/FiO2 ratio at baseline was 152±79, and the majority of patients (49.3%) were treated with CPAP. The overall unadjusted 30-day mortality rate was 26.9% with 16%, 30%, and 30%, while the total ETI rate was 27% with 29%, 25% and 28%, for HFNC, CPAP, and NIV, respectively, and the relative probability to die was not related to the NRS used after adjustment for confounders. ETI and length of stay were not different among the groups. Mortality rate increased with age and comorbidity class progression.ConclusionsThe application of NRS outside the ICU is feasible and associated with favourable outcomes. Nonetheless, it was associated with a risk of staff contamination.

Surface plasmon polaritons are a central concept in nanoplasmonics and have been exploited to develop ultrasensitive chemical detection platforms, as well as imaging and spectroscopic techniques at the nanoscale. Surface plasmons can decay to form highly energetic (or hot) electrons in a process that is usually thought to be parasitic for applications, because it limits the lifetime and propagation length of surface plasmons and therefore has an adverse influence on the functionality of nanoplasmonic devices. Recently, however, it has been shown that hot electrons produced by surface plasmon decay can be harnessed to produce useful work in photodetection, catalysis and solar energy conversion. Nevertheless, the surface-plasmon-to-hot-electron conversion efficiency has been below 1% in all cases. Here we show that adiabatic focusing of surface plasmons on a Schottky diode-terminated tapered tip of nanoscale dimensions allows for a plasmon-to-hot-electron conversion efficiency of ∼30%. We further demonstrate that, with such high efficiency, hot electrons can be used for a new nanoscopy technique based on an atomic force microscopy set-up. We show that this hot-electron nanoscopy preserves the chemical sensitivity of the scanned surface and has a spatial resolution below 50 nm, with margins for improvement.

The cancer stem cell (CSC) model is describing tumors as a hierarchical organized system and CSCs are suggested to be responsible for cancer recurrence after therapy. The identification of specific markers of CSCs is therefore of paramount importance. Here, we show that high levels of lipid droplets (LDs) are a distinctive mark of CSCs in colorectal (CR) cancer. This increased lipid content was clearly revealed by label-free Raman spectroscopy and it directly correlates with well-accepted CR-CSC markers as CD133 and Wnt pathway activity. By xenotransplantation experiments, we have finally demonstrated that CR-CSCs overexpressing LDs retain most tumorigenic potential. A relevant conceptual advance in this work is the demonstration that a cellular organelle, the LD, is a signature of CSCs, in addition to molecular markers. A further functional characterization of LDs could lead soon to design new target therapies against CR-CSCs. Stem Cells 2015;33:35–44

We present an advanced and robust technology to realize 3D hollow plasmonic nanostructures which are tunable in size, shape, and layout. The presented architectures offer new and unconventional properties such as the realization of 3D plasmonic hollow nanocavities with high electric field confinement and enhancement, finely structured extinction profiles, and broad band optical absorption. The 3D nature of the devices can overcome intrinsic difficulties related to conventional architectures in a wide range of multidisciplinary applications.

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