Susceptibility of SARS-CoV2 infection in children

Coronavirus disease 2019 in children presents with distinct phenotype in comparison to adults. Overall, the pediatric infection with a generally milder clinical course of the acute infection compared to adults still faces several unknown aspects. Specifically, the presence of a wide range of inflammatory manifestations, including multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), myocarditis, and long COVID in the period after infection suggests a particular susceptibility of some children upon severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Albeit peculiar complications such as long covid are less frequent in children compared to adults, research on the relationship between inflammatory syndromes and SARS-CoV-2 is rapidly evolving. Conclusions: new studies and findings continue to emerge, providing further insights into the underlying mechanisms and potential therapeutic strategies. In the present work, we revised current knowledge of the main factors accounting for such variability upon SARS-CoV-2 infection over the pediatric age group.What is Known:& BULL; COVID19 in children overall showed a milder course compared to adults during the acute phase of the infection.& BULL; Children showed to be susceptible to a wide range of post infectious complications including multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), myocarditis, neuroinflammation, and long COVID.What is New:& BULL; Mechanisms underlying susceptibility to a severe course of the infection were recently shown to pertain to the host.& BULL; A specific combination of HLA was recently shown to be associated to higher susceptibility to MIS-C in children

Palpation force modulation strategies to identify hard regions in soft tissue organs

This work was supported by EPSRC MOTION grant (grant number EP/N03211X/1), National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre based at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London and Vattikuti Foundation

Autonomous Robotic Palpation of Soft Tissue using the Modulation of Applied Force

Palpation or perception of tactile information from soft tissue organs during minimally invasive surgery is required to improve clinical outcomes. One of the methods of palpation includes examination using the modulation of applied force on the localized area. This paper presents a method of soft tissue autonomous palpation based on the mathematical model obtained from human tactile examination data using modulations of palpation force. Using a second order reactive auto-regressive model of applied force, a robotic probe with spherical indenter was controlled to examine silicone tissue phantoms containing artificial nodules. The results show that the autonomous palpation using the model abstracted from human demonstration can be used not only to detect embedded nodules, but also to enhance the stiffness perception compared to the static indentation of the probe

Crack growth behavior of SBR, NR and BR rubber compounds: comparison of Pure-Shear versus Strip Tensile test

Fatigue crack growth experiments on different carbon black–filled rubber compounds have been carried out to evaluate the influence of pure-shear and strip tensile testing mode by using sine and pulse as waveforms. In a previous set of experimental investigations regarding the influence of both waveform and tested material, it was found that the mode I of crack opening sometimes propagates too quickly to be properly monitored in tests involving strip-tensile specimens. An alternative test methodology based on pure-shear test mode has been investigated, optimizing both the shape of the specimen and the test equipment. Data obtained from the different compound formulations were consistent with the theoretical background and resulted in similar ranking of compound crack growth resistance for the two testing modes; in addition, pure-shear mode showed a higher sensitivity to formula variations

Impact of Sleeve Gastrectomy on Weight Loss, Glucose Homeostasis, and Comorbidities in Severely Obese Type 2 Diabetic Subjects

This study was undertaken to assess medium-term effects of laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) on body weight and glucose homeostasis in severely obese type 2 diabetic (T2DM) subjects. Twenty-five obese T2DM subjects (10 M/15 F, age 45 ± 9 years, BMI 48 ± 8 kg/m2, M ± SD) underwent evaluation of anthropometric/clinical parameters and glucose homeostasis before, 3 and 9–15 months after LSG. Mean BMI decreased from 48 ± 8 kg/m2 to 40 ± 9 kg/m2 (P < .001) at 3 months and 34 ± 6 kg/m2 (P < .001) at 9–15 months after surgery. Remission of T2DM (fasting plasma glucose < 126 mg/dL and HbA1c < 6.5% in the absence of hypoglycemic treatment) occurred in all patients but one. There was a remarkable reduction in the percentage of patients requiring antihypertensive and hypolipidemic drugs. Our study shows that LSG is effective in producing a significant and sustained weight loss and improving glucose homeostasis in severely obese T2DM patients

Concerning synthesis of new biobased polycarbonates with curcumin in replacement of bisphenol a and recycled diphenyl carbonate as example of circular economy

Curcumin (CM) is a natural polyphenol well-known for its antioxidant and pharmaceutical properties, that can represent a renewable alternative to bisphenol A (BPA) for the synthesis of biobased polycarbonates (PC). In the presented strategy, preparation of the CM-based PC was coupled with chemical recycling of the fossil-based BPA polycarbonate (BPA-PC) conducting a two-steps trans-polymerization that replaces BPA monomer with CM or its tetrahydrogenated colorless product (THCM). In the first step of synthetic strategy, depolymerization of commercial BPA-PC was carried out with phenol as nucleophile, according to our previous procedure based on zinc derivatives and ionic liquids as catalysts, thus producing quantitatively diphenyl carbonate (DPC) e BPA. In the second step, DPC underwent a melt transesterification with CM or THCM monomers affording the corresponding bio-based polycarbonates, CM-PC and THCM-PC, respectively. THCM was prepared by reducing natural bis-phenol with cyclohexene as a hydrogen donor and characterized by 1H-NMR and MS techniques. Polymerization reactions were monitored by infrared spectroscopy and average molecular weights and dispersity of the two biobased polymers THCM-PC and CM-PC were determined by means of gel permeation chromatography (GPC). Optical properties of the prepared polymers were also measured

Defective B-cell proliferation and maintenance of long-term memory in patients with chronic granulomatous disease

Background: Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) is a primary immune deficiency characterized by a defect in reactive oxygen species production. Although the effect of CGD mainly reflects on the phagocytic compartment, B-cell responses are also impaired in patients with CGD. Objective: We sought to investigate how defective gp91phox expression in patients with CGD and CGD carriers might affect the B-cell compartment and maintenance of long-term memory. Methods: We studied the B-cell compartment of patients with CGD in terms of phenotype and ability to produce reactive oxygen species and proliferate on stimuli differently directed to the B-cell receptor and Toll-like receptor 9. We further studied their capacity to maintain long-term memory by measuring cellular and serologic responses to measles. Results: We show that the memory B-cell compartment is impaired among patients with CGD, as indicated by reduced total (CD191CD271) and resting (CD191CD271CD211) memory B cells in parallel to increased naive (CD191CD272IgD1) B-cell frequencies. Data on CGD carriers reveal that such alterations are related to gp91phox expression. Moreover, proliferative capabilities of B cells on selective in vitro stimulation of B-cell receptor or Toll-like receptor 9 pathways were reduced in patients with CGD compared with those seen in age-matched healthy control subjects. Significantly lower measles-specific antibody levels and antibody-secreting cell numbers were also observed, indicating a poor ability to maintain long-term memory in these patients. Conclusion: Altogether, our data suggest that patients with CGD present a defective B-cell compartment in terms of frequencies of memory B cells, response to in vitro stimulation, and maintenance of long-term antigen-specific memory

Development, optimization, and comparison of different sample pre-treatments for simultaneous determination of vitamin e and vitamin K in vegetables

The absence of vitamin E from the diet can lead to cardiovascular disease, cancer, cataracts, and premature aging. Vitamin K deficiency can lead to bleeding disorders. These fat-soluble vitamins are important nutritional factors that can be determined in different methods in vegetables. In this work, the simultaneous determination of α-tocopherol, α-tocopheryl acetate, phylloquinone, and menaquinone-4 by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) has been optimized using both direct injection and solid phase microextraction (SPME). Three different sample pre-treatment approaches based on: (A) solid-liquid-liquid-liquid extraction (SLE-LLE), (B) SLE, and (C) SPME were then applied to extract the target analytes from vegetables samples using menaquinone as internal standard. All the procedures allowed the determination of the target analytes in onion, carrot, celery, and curly kale samples. Similar results were obtained with the three different approaches, even if the one based on SPME offers the best performance, together with a reduced use of solvent, time consumption, and experimental complexity, which makes it the preferable option for industrial applications