NECROTIZING FASCIITIS OF THE POSTERIOR CERVICAL COMPARTMENT: AN ATYPICAL CASE DUE TO STREPTOCOCCUS AGALACTIAE

Necrotizing fasciitis is a fulminant infection that affects the deep and superficial fascia while initially sparing the overlying skin and underlying muscle. The involvement of the cervicalcompartment is associated with a high morbidity and mortality rate. Immunocompromised patients are prone to this infection. We present a case of a 80 year-old diabetic womansuffering from streptococcal cervical NF (probably secondary to a arm injury) with an uncommon involvement of the posterior cervical compartment, highlighting the atypical responsible microorganism (Streptococcus Agalactiae), the role of imaging for early diagnosis and the timely surgical and medical treatment for a successful outcome.

The ACPATH Metric: Precise Estimation of the Number of Acyclic Paths in C-like Languages

NPATH is a metric introduced by Brian A. Nejmeh in [13] that is aimed at overcoming some important limitations of McCabe's cyclomatic complexity. Despite the fact that the declared NPATH objective is to count the number of acyclic execution paths through a function, the definition given for the C language in [13] fails to do so even for very simple programs. We show that counting the number of acyclic paths in CFG is unfeasible in general. Then we define a new metric for C-like languages, called ACPATH, that allows to quickly compute an very good estimation of the number of acyclic execution paths through the given function. We show that, if the function body does not contain backward gotos and does not contain jumps into a loop from outside the loop, then such estimation is actually exact

Photometric type Ia supernova surveys in narrow band filters

We study the characteristics of a narrow band type Ia supernova survey through simulations based on the upcoming Javalambre Physics of the accelerating universe Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS). This unique survey has the capabilities of obtaining distances, redshifts, and the SN type from a single experiment thereby circumventing the challenges faced by the resource-intensive spectroscopic follow-up observations. We analyse the flux measurements signal-to-noise ratio and bias, the supernova typing performance, the ability to recover light curve parameters given by the SALT2 model, the photometric redshift precision from type Ia supernova light curves and the effects of systematic errors on the data. We show that such a survey is not only feasible but may yield large type Ia supernova samples (up to 250 supernovae at $z<0.5$ per month of search) with low core collapse contamination ($\sim 1.5$ per cent), good precision on the SALT2 parameters (average $\sigma_{m_B}=0.063$, $\sigma_{x_1}=0.47$ and $\sigma_c=0.040$) and on the distance modulus (average $\sigma_{\mu}=0.16$, assuming an intrinsic scatter $\sigma_{\mathrm{int}}=0.14$), with identified systematic uncertainties $\sigma_{\mathrm{sys}}\lesssim 0.10 \sigma_{\mathrm{stat}}$. Moreover, the filters are narrow enough to detect most spectral features and obtain excellent photometric redshift precision of $\sigma_z=0.005$, apart from $\sim$ 2 per cent of outliers. We also present a few strategies for optimising the survey's outcome. Together with the detailed host galaxy information, narrow band surveys can be very valuable for the study of supernova rates, spectral feature relations, intrinsic colour variations and correlations between supernova and host galaxy properties, all of which are important information for supernova cosmological applications.Comment: 20 pages, 12 tables and 26 figures. Version accepted by MNRAS, with results slightly different from previous on

Effect of 1,3-1,6 β-Glucan on Natural and Experimental Deformed Wing Virus Infection in Newly Emerged Honeybees (Apis mellifera ligustica)

The Western Honeybee is a key pollinator for natural as well as agricultural ecosystems. In the last decade massive honeybee colony losses have been observed worldwide, the result of a complex syndrome triggered by multiple stress factors, with the RNA virus Deformed Wing Virus (DWV) and the mite Varroa destructor playing crucial roles. The mite supports replication of DWV to high titers, which exert an immunosuppressive action and correlate with the onset of the disease. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of 1,3-1,6 β-glucan, a natural innate immune system modulator, on honeybee response to low-titer natural and high-titer experimental DWV infection. As the effects exerted by ß-glucans can be remarkably different, depending on the target organism and the dose administered, two parallel experiments were performed, where 1,3-1,6 ß-glucan at a concentration of 0.5% and 2% respectively, was added to the diet of three cohorts of newly emerged honeybees, which were sampled from a Varroa-free apiary and harboured a low endogenous DWV viral titer. Each cohort was subjected to one of the following experimental treatments: no injection, injection of a high-copy number DWV suspension into the haemocel (experimental DWV infection) or injection of PBS into the haemocoel (physical injury). Control bees fed a ß-glucan-free diet were subjected to the same treatments. Viral load, survival rate, haemocyte populations and phenoloxidase activity of each experimental group were measured and compared. The results indicated that oral administration of 0.5% ß-glucan to naturally infected honeybees was associated with a significantly decrease of the number of infected bees and viral load they carried, and with a significant increase of the survival rate, suggesting that this natural immune modulator molecule might contribute to increase honeybee resistance to viral infection

EFFETTO NUTRACEUTICO DEI BETA-­‐GLUCANI SU API INFETTE DA DEFORMED WING VIRUS (DWV).

Il Deformed Wing Virus (DWV) o virus delle api deformi è responsabile di una infezione spesso in forma subclinica che è molto diffusa nell'Apis mellifera. Il virus appartiene alla famiglia Picornavirales e, come gli altri membri della famiglia, è caratterizzato da un virione nudo di piccole dimensioni racchiudente un genoma a ssRNA (+). Il virus infetta le forme larvali durante il loro sviluppo e l’infezione si manifesta con la comparsa di api neo-sfarfallate con gravi deformazioni a carico delle ali e con ridotte dimensioni del corpo. La malattia può portare al collasso della colonia ed in genere le forme più gravi sono associate ad infestazioni di Varroa destructor, un acaro che agisce sia come parassita che come amplificatore e vettore biologico del virus. Le api, così come altri invertebrati, hanno sviluppato un'ampia varietà di meccanismi di difesa innata contro i vari agenti patogeni, seppur in assenza di un sistema immunitario adattativo. In molti dei meccanismi immunodifensivi degli invertebrati sono coinvolte proteine secrete da cellule dell'emolinfa dotate di attività opsonizzante, chemiotattica, battericida e perossidasica. Tali meccanismi possono essere modulati dalla presenza di varie molecole definite immunomodulatori. Tra queste i ß-glucani, polisaccaridi ramificati non amidacei costituiti da molecole di glucosio unite insieme mediante legami glicosidici β(1,3) e β(1,6), possono rappresentare una alternativa all'utilizzo di sostanze di sintesi chimica. I ß-glucani sono costituenti della parte solubile della fibra vegetale, sono presenti in molti cereali ma anche nelle pareti cellulari di vari agenti patogeni. Al fine di comprendere se i ß-glucani possano avere una efficace azione immunomodulante sulle api, la molecola è stata integrata nell’ alimentazione di gruppi sperimentali di api in un modello di infezione naturale e sperimentale con DWV. Gli esperimenti condotti hanno permesso di quantificare il tasso di mortalità, di stimare il numero e il grado di attivazione delle cellule deputate all’attività immunitaria, di quantizzare il virus presente nei vari distretti delle api (testa/addome) e di valutarne la replicazione. I risultati ottenuti hanno dimostrato che la somministrazione di ß-glucani per via orale in api infette da DWV è associata a un significativo aumento del tasso di sopravvivenza, ad un incremento del numero di emociti, e ad una riduzione della carica virale. Tali risultati suggeriscono che questa molecola possa contribuire ad incrementare la difesa delle api verso agenti patogeni

J-PAS: Forecasts for dark matter - dark energy elastic couplings

We consider a cosmological model where dark matter and dark energy feature a coupling that only affects their momentum transfer in the corresponding Euler equations. We perform a fit to cosmological observables and confirm previous findings within these scenarios that favour the presence of a coupling at more than $3\sigma$. This improvement is driven by the Sunyaev-Zeldovich data. We subsequently perform a forecast for future J-PAS data and find that clustering measurements will permit to clearly discern the presence of an interaction within a few percent level with the uncoupled case at more than $10\sigma$ when the complete survey, covering $8500$ sq. deg., is considered. We found that the inclusion of weak lensing measurements will not help to further constrain the coupling parameter. For completeness, we compare to forecasts for DESI and Euclid, which provide similar discriminating power.Comment: 34 pages, 17 figures, added some clarifications and discussions, matches published versio

The miniJPAS survey quasar selection IV: Classification and redshift estimation with SQUEzE

We present a list of quasar candidates including photometric redshift estimates from the miniJPAS Data Release constructed using SQUEzE. This work is based on machine-learning classification of photometric data of quasar candidates using SQUEzE. It has the advantage that its classification procedure can be explained to some extent, making it less of a `black box' when compared with other classifiers. Another key advantage is that using user-defined metrics means the user has more control over the classification. While SQUEzE was designed for spectroscopic data, here we adapt it for multi-band photometric data, i.e. we treat multiple narrow-band filters as very low-resolution spectra. We train our models using specialized mocks from Queiroz et al. (2022). We estimate our redshift precision using the normalized median absolute deviation, $\sigma_{\rm NMAD}$ applied to our test sample. Our test sample returns an $f_1$ score (effectively the purity and completeness) of 0.49 for quasars down to magnitude $r=24.3$ with $z\geq2.1$ and 0.24 for quasars with $z<2.1$. For high-z quasars, this goes up to 0.9 for $r<21.0$. We present two catalogues of quasar candidates including redshift estimates: 301 from point-like sources and 1049 when also including extended sources. We discuss the impact of including extended sources in our predictions (they are not included in the mocks), as well as the impact of changing the noise model of the mocks. We also give an explanation of SQUEzE reasoning. Our estimates for the redshift precision using the test sample indicate a $\sigma_{NMAD}=0.92\%$ for the entire sample, reduced to 0.81\% for $r<22.5$ and 0.74\% for $r<21.3$. Spectroscopic follow-up of the candidates is required in order to confirm the validity of our findings.Comment: Accepted in A&A 24 pages, 24 figures, 7 table