Effect of Pruning Severity on Yield, Drying Time and Wages in Flame Seedless Dry-on-vine and Traditional Raisin Production Systems in Argentina

Raisin grapes are potentially more profitable than wine grapes in San Juan, Argentina, although the traditional system of grape drying requires an extensive use of costly labour. Production costs might be reduced by adopting the dry-on-vine (DOV) raisin-making system, but the feasibility of DOV in Argentina has not been assessed, and neither have the costs and pruning schemes. Thus we determined drying time and yields, estimated wages per hectare, and determined the influence of pruning severity on Flame Seedless raisin grapes. A completely random design with six treatments and six replicates was used in the 2013 to 2016 seasons. The treatments comprised differences in the nodes per cane, nodes per vine,distribution of nodes, and sugar content. Descriptive statistics and variance analysis were calculated for fresh fruit weight, dry fruit weight, drying ratio and drying time. The leaf area and its relationship with dried fruit weight also were calculated. These data were processed with the Infostat program. The DOV system demands between 11 and 31 additional days during the drying period and reduces labour costs by between 38% and 64% compared to the traditional system. Long pruning with the same load of buds is better. Furthermore, the DOV system is not associated with a lower production and thus appears to be a financially sustainable alternative to traditional production systems for Flame Seedless raisin grape producers in Argentina

Alexithymia, impulsiveness, and psychopathology in Nonsuicidal self-injured adolescents

Introduction: Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a multifaceted phenomenon and a major health issue among adolescents. A better understanding of self-injury comorbidities is crucial to improve our ability to assess, treat, and prevent NSSI. Purpose: This study aimed at analyzing some of the psychobehavioral correlates of NSSI: psychological problems, alexithymia, impulsiveness, and sociorelational aspects. Patients and methods: This was a case-control study. The clinical sample (n=33) included adolescents attending our unit for NSSI and other issues; the controls (n=79) were high-school students. Data were collected using six questionnaires: Youth Self-Report, Barratt\u2019s Impulsiveness Scale, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Children\u2019s Depression Inventory, Symptom Checklist-90-R, and Child Behavior Checklist. Results: Cases scored significantly higher in all questionnaires. Habitual self-injurers scored higher on impulsiveness and alexithymia. The gesture\u2019s repetition seems relevant to the global clinical picture: habitual self-injurers appear more likely to seek help from the sociosanitary services. We found a difference between the self-injurers\u2019 and their parents\u2019 awareness of the disorder. Conclusion: Habitual self-injurers show signs of having difficulty with assessing the consequences of their actions (nonplanning impulsiveness) and the inability to manage their feelings. Given the significantly higher scores found for cases than for controls on all the psychopathological scales, NSSI can be seen as a cross-category psychiatric disorder, supporting the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders decision to include it as a pathological entity in its own right

Cognitive functions in repeated glioma surgery

Low-grade gliomas (LGG) are slow-growing brain tumors infiltrating the central nervous system which tend to recur, often with malignant degeneration after primary treatment. Re-operations are not always recommended due to an assumed higher risk of neurological and cognitive deficits. However, this assumption is relatively ungrounded due to a lack of extensive neuropsychological testing. We retrospectively examined a series of 40 patients with recurrent glioma in eloquent areas of the left hemisphere, who all completed comprehensive pre- (T3) and post-surgical (T4) neuropsychological assessments after a second surgery (4-month follow up). The lesions were most frequent in the left insular cortex and the inferior frontal gyrus. Among this series, in 17 patients the cognitive outcomes were compared before the first surgery (T1), 4 months after the first surgery (T2), and at T3 and T4. There was no significant difference either in the number of patients scoring within the normal range between T3 and T4, or in their level of performance. Further addressing the T1\u2013T4 evolution, there was no significant difference in the number of patients scoring within the normal range. As to their level of performance, the only significant change was in phonological fluency. This longitudinal follow-up study showed that repeated glioma surgery is possible without major damage to cognitive functions in the short-term period (4 months) after surgery

Field reliability of GaAs emitters for fiber optic telecommunication systems

GaAs based emitters are widely used in telecommunication systems, and will be probably the core of short haul communications, even if a lot of doubts still exist on their reliability and the few available field results are not too optimistic. For these reasons we decided to follow with a particular attention all the problems related to these devices, investigating reliability by means of accelerated tests and of an accurate survey of field troubles. In this paper, we first of all report our field data, coming from more than five years experience, which show that "reasonable" results (in the range of 2000 FITs for LDs), can be obtained with commercially available devices; as a second step, failure analysis allows to localize failures,thus understanding the appropriate corrective actions to be taken. highlighting the specific process report also same For chip related failures, detailed examples are reported, different failure mechanisms, that, when not related to defects, are the same found during accelerated tests; we examples of failures due to interconnections and packaging

Avaliação da adesão do paciente ao tratamento de doenças crônicas: diferenciando as abordagens epidemiológica e clínica

This review discusses the concepts and methods for assessing patient adherence to treatment, as applied to both epidemiological and clinical approaches within real health care practices. For the epidemiological approach, the assessment must be as accurate as possible. Self-reported questionnaires are the most feasible option in most circumstances, but most demonstrate low sensitivity combined with high specificity. We suggest that self-reported outcomes, where feasible, can increase the sensitivity for non-adherence of these questionnaires. In the clinical approach an accurate distinction between adherents and non-adherents is less useful. For the health provider, it is more important to be aware of the particular situation that each patient is currently experiencing with his/her treatment. Self-reported questionnaires applied in clinical settings can help the health provider to form an objective opinion. In any event, the patient-provider dialogue is still the best approach to assess patient adherence as well as to deliver good care.Esta revisão discute conceitos e métodos de avaliação da adesão do paciente ao tratamento de saúde, aplicáveis para a abordagem epidemiológica e para a abordagem clínica. Na abordagem epidemiológica, a avaliação deve ter a melhor acurácia possível. Os questionários de auto-relato são a opção mais viável na maioria dos contextos. Entretanto, a maior parte dos questionários apresenta baixa sensibilidade aliada a alta especificidade. Sugere-se que o desfecho clínico auto-relatado, quando factível, é capaz de aumentar a sensibilidade desses questionários. Para a abordagem clínica, uma acurada discriminação entre aderentes e não aderentes é pouco útil. Para o profissional de saúde, é mais importante conhecer a situação particular pela qual o paciente está, no momento, passando com seu tratamento. Questionários de auto-relato aplicados no contexto clínico podem auxiliar a melhorar a objetividade da opinião do profissional. Em qualquer caso, contudo, o diálogo paciente-profissional é ainda a melhor abordagem para avaliar a adesão, assim como para prover um bom cuidado

A Clostridium difficile outbreak in an Italian hospital: The efficacy of the multi-disciplinary and multifaceted approach

Introduction. We described an outbreak of C. difficile that occurred in the Internal Medicine department of an Italian hospital and assessed the efficacy of the measures adopted to manage the outbreak. Methods. The outbreak involved 15 patients and was identified by means of continuous integrated microbiological surveillance, starting with laboratory data (alert organism surveillance). Diarrheal fecal samples from patients with suspected infection by C. difficile underwent rapid membrane immuno-enzymatic testing, which detects both the presence of the glutamate dehydrogenase antigen and the presence of the A and B toxins. Extensive microbiological sampling was carried out both before and after sanitation of the environment, in order to assess the efficacy of the sanitation procedure. Results. The outbreak lasted one and a half month, during which time the Committee for the Prevention of Hospital Infections ordered the implementation of multiple interventions, which enabled the outbreak to be controlled and the occurrence of new cases to be progressively prevented. The strategies adopted mainly involved patient isolation, reinforcement of proper hand hygiene techniques, antimicrobial stewardship and environmental decontamination by means of chlorine-based products. Moreover, the multifaceted management of the outbreak involved numerous sessions of instruction/training for nursing staff and socio-sanitary operatives during the outbreak. Sampling of environmental surfaces enabled two sites contaminated by C. difficile to be identified. Conclusions. Joint planning of multiple infection control practices, together with effective communication and collaboration between the Hospital Infections Committee and the ward involved proved to be successful in controlling the outbreak

Critical involvement of calcium-dependent cytosolic phospholipase A2\u3b1 in aortic valve interstitial cell calcification

The involvement of calcium-dependent cytosolic phospholipase A2\u3b1 (cPLA2\u3b1) in aortic valve calcification is not exhaustively elucidated. Here, cPLA2\u3b1 expression in aortic valve interstitial cell (AVIC) pro-calcific cultures simulating either metastatic or dystrophic calcification was estimated by qPCR, Western blotting, and counting of cPLA2\u3b1-immunoreactive cells, with parallel ultrastructural examination of AVIC calcific degeneration. These evaluations also involved pro-calcific AVIC cultures treated with cPLA2\u3b1 inhibitor dexamethasone. cPLA2\u3b1 over-expression resulted for both types of pro-calcific AVIC cultures. Compared to controls, enzyme content was found to increase by up to 300% and 186% in metastatic and dystrophic calcification-like cultures, respectively. Increases in mRNA amounts were also observed, although they were not as striking as those in enzyme content. Moreover, cPLA2\u3b1 increases were time-dependent and strictly associated with mineralization progression. Conversely, drastically lower levels of enzyme content resulted for the pro-calcific AVIC cultures supplemented with dexamethasone. In particular, cPLA2\u3b1 amounts were found to decrease by almost 88% and 48% in metastatic and dystrophic calcification-like cultures, respectively, with mRNA amounts showing a similar trend. Interestingly, these drastic decreases in cPLA2\u3b1 amounts were paralleled by drastic decreases in mineralization degrees, as revealed ultrastructurally. In conclusion, cPLA2\u3b1 may be regarded as a crucial co-factor contributing to AVIC mineralization in vitro, thus being an attractive potential target for designing novel therapeutic strategies aimed to counteract onset or progression of calcific aortic valve diseases

In Vitro Selection of Single-Stranded DNA Molecular Recognition Elements against S. aureus Alpha Toxin and Sensitive Detection in Human Serum

Alpha toxin is one of the major virulence factors secreted by Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium that is responsible for a wide variety of infections in both community and hospital settings. Due to the prevalence of S. aureus related infections and the emergence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus, rapid and accurate diagnosis of S. aureus infections is crucial in benefiting patient health outcomes. In this study, a rigorous Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment (SELEX) variant previously developed by our laboratory was utilized to select a single-stranded DNA molecular recognition element (MRE) targeting alpha toxin with high affinity and specificity. At the end of the 12-round selection, the selected MRE had an equilibrium dissociation constant (Kd) of 93.7 ± 7.0 nM. Additionally, a modified sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed by using the selected ssDNA MRE as the toxin-capturing element and a sensitive detection of 200 nM alpha toxin in undiluted human serum samples was achieved