157 research outputs found

    One step closer to influenza vaccine inclusiveness

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    Flu virus infection is a common cause of acute respiratory illness, with the major incidence in pediatric age, high morbidity, and mortality. The flu vaccine is recommended for all people aged ≄6 months, unless specific contraindications are present. Younger and older age, pregnancy, chronic diseases like asthma, and immunodeficiency are risk factors for severe complications following flu infection. Thus, these categories represent the target for flu vaccine strategies in most countries. Inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV), recombinant influenza vaccine (RIV) or live‐attenuated influenza virus (LAIV) are currently available, with specific precautions and contraindications. We aim to resume the current indications for vaccines in the vulnerable populations to support flu vaccination inclusiveness, in anticipation of a “universal vaccine” strategy

    A novel primary human immunodeficiency due to deficiency in the WASP-interacting protein WIP

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    A female offspring of consanguineous parents, showed features of Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (WAS), including recurrent infections, eczema, thrombocytopenia, defective T cell proliferation and chemotaxis, and impaired natural killer cell function. Cells from this patient had undetectable WAS protein (WASP), but normal WAS sequence and messenger RNA levels. WASP interacting protein (WIP), which stabilizes WASP, was also undetectable. A homozygous c.1301C>G stop codon mutation was found in the WIPF1 gene, which encodes WIP. Introduction of WIP into the patient’s T cells restored WASP expression. These findings indicate that WIP deficiency should be suspected in patients with features of WAS in whom WAS sequence and mRNA levels are normal

    A patient-specific study investigating the relation between coronary hemodynamics and neo-intimal thickening after bifurcation stenting with a polymeric bioresorbable scaffold

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    We present an application of a validated reconstruction methodology for the comparison between patient-specific hemodynamics and neo-intimal thickening at nine months from the intervention. (1) Background: Coronary bifurcation stenting alters the vessel geometry, influencing the local hemodynamics. The evaluation of wall shear stress (WSS) relies on the application of computational fluid dynamics to model its distribution along the coronary tree. The endothelium actively responds to WSS, which triggers eventual cell proliferation to cover the stent struts. (2) Methods: Baseline optical coherence tomography and angiographic data were combined to reconstruct a patient-specific coronary bifurcation with an implanted bioresorbable scaffold and to simulate the hemodynamics. Results were linked with the neo-intimal thickening after nine months from the intervention. (3) Results: Blood velocity patterns were disrupted at the bifurcation due to the presence of the stent. It was observed that 55.6% of the scaffolded lumen surface was exposed to values of time-averaged WSS lower than 0.4 Pa. Follow-up images showed a luminal narrowing of 19% in the main branch. There was also a complete coverage in 99% of struts. (4) Conclusions: This approach provided valuable complementary information that might improve the clinical outcomes in this subset of coronary diseases

    The fusion approach – applications for understanding local government and European integration

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    The article explores the theoretical capabilities of the fusion approach as a conceptual ‘kit’ to explain the ‘bigger picture’ of European integration from a local government perspective. Fusion addresses the rationales and methods facilitating the transfer of policy-making competences to the European level. It understands European integration as a merging of public resources and policy instruments from multiple levels of government, whereby accountability and responsibilities for policy outcomes become blurred. The article argues that the fusion approach is useful to explain the systemic linkages between macro-trajectories and the corresponding change at the local level; the fusion dynamics of the local and European levels in a common policy-cycle; and the attitudes of local actors towards the EU. Although the article concludes that local government is rather modestly ‘fused’ into the EU, fusion approaches allow examining the extent to which the local level has become integrated into the European governance system
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