Developing a risk assessment score for patients with cancer during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic

The novel coronavirus (CoV) pandemic is a serious threat for patients with cancer, who have an immunocompromised status and are considered at high risk of infections. Data on the novel CoV respiratory disease (coronavirus disease 2019 [COVID-19]) in patients with cancer are still limited. Unlike other common viruses, CoVs have not been shown to cause a more severe disease in immunocompromised subjects. Along with direct viral pathogenicity, in some individuals, CoV infection triggers an uncontrolled aberrant inflammatory response, leading to lung tissue damage. In patients with cancer treated with immunotherapy (e.g. immune checkpoint inhibitors), COVID-19 may therefore represent a serious threat. After a thorough review of the literature on CoV pathogenesis and cancer, we selected several shared features to define which patients can be considered at higher risk of COVID-19. We combined these clinical and laboratory variables, with the aim of developing a score to weight the risk of COVID-19 in patients with cancer

Authentication of European sea bass according to production method and geographical origin by light stable isotope ratio and rare earth elements analyses combined with chemometrics

In this work, stable isotope ratio (SIR) and rare earth elements (REEs) analyses, combined with multivariate data elaboration, were used to explore the possibility to authenticate European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax L.) according to: i) production method (wild or farmed specimens); ii) geographical origin (Western, Central or Eastern Mediterranean Sea). The dataset under investigation included a total of 144 wild and farmed specimens coming from 17 different European areas located in the Mediterranean Sea basin. Samples were subjected to SIR analysis (carbon and nitrogen) and REEs analysis (lanthanum, europium, holmium, erbium, lutetium, and terbium). Then, Analytical data were handled by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and then by Orthogonal Partial Last Square Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA), to obtain functional classification models to qualitatively discriminate sea bass according to the conditions under study. OPLSDA models provided good correct classification rate both for production method and geographical origin. It was confirmed that chemometric elaboration of data obtained from SIR and REEs analyses can be a suitable tool for an accurate authentication of European sea bass

Advances in troubleshooting fish and seafood authentication by inorganic elemental composition

The demand for fish and seafood is growing worldwide. Meanwhile, problems related to the integrity and safety of the fishery sector are increasing, leading legislators, producers, and consumers to search for ways to effectively protect themselves from fraud and health hazards related to fish consumption. What is urgently required now is the availability of reliable, truthful, and reproducible methods assuring the correspondence between the real nature of the product and label declarations accompanying the same product during its market life. The evaluation of the inorganic composition of fish and seafood appears to be one of the most promising strategies to be exploited in the near future to assist routine and official monitoring operations along the supply chain. The present review article focuses on exploring the latest scientific achievements of using the multi-elemental composition of fish and seafood as an imprint of their authenticity and traceability, especially with regards to the geographical origin. The scientific literature of the last 10 years focusing on the analytical determination and statistical elaboration of elemental data (alone or in combination with methodologies targeting other compounds) to verify the identity of fishery products is summarized and discussed

Giant and reversible extrinsic magnetocaloric effects in La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 films due to strain

Large thermal changes driven by a magnetic field have been proposed for environmentally friendly energy efficient refrigeration, but only a few materials which suffer hysteresis show these giant magnetocaloric effects. Here we create giant and reversible extrinsic magnetocaloric effects in epitaxial films of the ferromagnetic manganite La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 using strain mediated feedback from BaTiO3 substrates near a first-order structural phase transition. Our findings should inspire the discovery of giant magnetocaloric effects in a wide range of magnetic materials, and the parallel development of nanostructured bulk samples for practical applications.Comment: 32 pages, 1 Table, 5 figures, supplementary informatio

SUSCEPTIBILITY OF Listeria monocytogenes STRAINS ISOLATED FROM FOOD TO ANTIMICROBIAL AGENTS

The objective of this study was to evaluate the susceptibility of 40 L. monocytogenes strains isolated from seafood and processing environments to 19 antibiotics currently used in veterinary and human therapy. Susceptibility tests were performed by the automated system VITEK2. Apart from Penicillin, Ampicillin and Trimethoprim-Sulfamethoxazole, for which clinical breakpoint for Listeria susceptibility testing are defined according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute (CLSI), in the present study the CLSI criteria for staphylococci were applied. This study shows that isolated L. monocytogenes strains are susceptible to the antibiotics commonly used in veterinary and human listeriosis treatment. Very few strains (7,5%) showed a resistance behaviour towards Oxacillin, whereas a variable pattern was showed for Ciprofloxacin and Moxifloxacin. Moreover, an increase in tetracycline resistance, reported by several authors, can not be confirmed in this study, probably due to the different sources of strains isolation. At last, the VITEK2 system represents a rapid and easy-to-use means for antimicrobial susceptibility test of Listeria monocytogenes. In conclusion, because of the increase of antimicrobial resistance showed by L. monocytogenes, a continuous surveillance of emerging antimicrobial resistance among this pathogen is important to ensure effective treatment of human listeriosis. These data can be used for improve background data on antibiotic resistance of strains isolated from food and food environment, even considering the lack of clinical breakpoint provided by the CLSI

Towards a Conceptualization of Sociomaterial Entanglement

In knowledge representation, socio-technical systems can be modeled as multiagent systems in which the local knowledge of each individual agent can be seen as a context. In this paper we propose formal ontologies as a means to describe the assumptions driving the construction of contexts as local theories and to enable interoperability among them. In particular, we present two alternative conceptualizations of the notion of sociomateriality (and entanglement), which is central in the recent debates on socio-technical systems in the social sciences, namely critical and agential realism. We thus start by providing a model of entanglement according to the critical realist view, representing it as a property of objects that are essentially dependent on different modules of an already given ontology. We refine then our treatment by proposing a taxonomy of sociomaterial entanglements that distinguishes between ontological and epistemological entanglement. In the final section, we discuss the second perspective, which is more challenging form the point of view of knowledge representation, and we show that the very distinction of information into modules can be at least in principle built out of the assumption of an entangled reality

Preliminary notes on invasion and proliferation of foodborne Listeria monocytogenes strains

In this study, virulence properties of L. monocytogenes strains isolated from food and food environments were evaluated. In particular, adhesion and invasion efficiencies were tested in a cell culture model (HeLa). Half of the isolates (9/18) exhibited a high invasion index. In particular, the strain isolated from smoked salmon had the highest invasion index. The remaining isolates showed an intermediate invasion index. All environmental isolates belonged to this group. Finally, no isolates revealed a low invasion index. Regarding intracellular growth, all tested isolates had a replication time between 2 and 6 hours. For this reason, they can be considered virulent. In spite of its capability to invade HeLa cells with a medium/high invasion index, a non-haemolytic rabbit isolate did not show any intracellular growth. In conclusion, differences in invasion efficiency and intracellular growth did not seem strictly related to the origin of the strains. Moreover, invasiveness of an organism is not the only requirement for establishing an infection. Virulence of L. monocytogenes also depends on ability to grow intracellularly and to spread from cell to cell. For these reasons, PCR detection of known virulence genes has the potential to gain additional insight into their pathogenic potential. A comprehensive comparative virulence characterization of different L. monocytogenes strains in studies that include tissue culture models and PCR detection of virulence genes will be necessary to investigate differences in human-pathogenic potentials among the subtypes of this bacterium