Social media as a tool for scientific updating at the time of COVID pandemic: Results from a national survey in Italy

In the face of the rapid evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals on the frontline are in urgent need of frequent updates in the accomplishment of their practice. Hence, clinicians started to search for prompt, valid information on sources that are parallel to academic journals. Aim of this work is to investigate the extent of this phenomenon. We administered an anonymous online cross-sectional survey to 645 Italian clinicians. Target of the survey were all medical figures potentially involved in the management of COVID-19 cases. 369 questionnaires were returned. 19.5% (n = 72) of respondents were younger than 30 years-old; 49,3% (n = 182) worked in Infectious Diseases, Internal Medicine or Respiratory Medicine departments, 11.5% (n = 42) in Intensive Care Unit and 7.4% (n = 27) were general practitioner. 70% (n = 261) of respondents reported that their use of social media to seek medical information increased during the pandemic. 39.3% (n = 145) consistently consulted Facebook groups and 53.1% (n = 196) Whatsapp chats. 47% (n = 174) of respondents reported that information shared on social media had a consistent impact on their daily practice. In the present study, we found no difference in social media usage between age groups or medical specialties. Given the urgent need for scientific update during the present pandemic, these findings may help understanding how clinicians access new evidences and implement them in their daily practice

A Girl With Multiple Disabilities Increases Object Manipulation and Reduces Hand Mouthing Through a Microswitch-Based Program

Item does not contain fulltextThe study was an effort to help a girl with multiple disabilities increase object manipulation responses and reduce hand mouthing, carried out according to an ABAB sequence (in which A represented baseline phases; B, treatment phases) and including a 3-month follow-up. During the baseline phases, a microswitch cluster (i.e., a combination of microswitches) was used to monitor the girl's object manipulation responses and hand mouthing. Indices of happiness were also recorded. During the treatment phases and follow-up, the microswitch cluster was combined with the use of preferred stimuli for object manipulation responses. The stimuli lasted an 8-s period at each response if the girl remained free from hand mouthing through that period, but were interrupted if hand mouthing appeared. The results show that the girl increased object manipulation responses, learned to refrain from hand mouthing for most of the session time, maintained this performance over time, and showed an increase in indices of happiness

On the high cyclic stability of the tensile two-way shape memory effect in stress-induced martensite aged Co35Ni35Al30 single crystals

A stable tensile two-way shape memory effect with a strain of (+7.0 ±0.3) % along the [001]B2-direction upon stress-induced martensite ageing was obtained for single crystals of an Co35Ni35Al30 ferromagnetic alloy. Stress- induced martensite ageing at 398 K for 1.0 h under a compressive stress of 500 MPa along the [110]B2-direction led to the stabilization of L10-martensite variant, which contributes to sample elongation along the [001]B2- direction during stress-free cooling and reversible recovery upon subsequent heating. The tensile two-way shape memory effect was observed to be stable during stress-free thermal cycling through the phase transformation range. The characteristics of the two-way shape memory effect (reversible strain, martensitic transformation temperatures, and thermal hysteresis) did not change during 100 thermal cycles. The characteristics of the tensile two-way shape memory effect remain unchanged even after superelasticity cycling under a compressive stress of 1025 MPa applied along the [001]B2-direction at a temperature of 423 K, which is close to the stress-induced martensite ageing temperature

TRF2 positively regulates SULF2 expression increasing VEGF-A release and activity in tumor microenvironment

International audienceThe telomeric protein TRF2 is overexpressed in several human malignancies and contributes to tumori-genesis even though the molecular mechanism is not completely understood. By using a high-throughput approach based on the multiplexed Luminex X-MAP technology, we demonstrated that TRF2 dramatically affects VEGF-A level in the secretome of cancer cells, promoting endothelial cell-differentiation and angio-genesis. The pro-angiogenic effect of TRF2 is independent from its role in telomere capping. Instead, TRF2 binding to a distal regulatory element promotes the expression of SULF2, an endoglucosamine-6-sulfatase that impairs the VEGF-A association to the plasma membrane by inducing post-synthetic modification of heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs). Finally, we addressed the clinical relevance of our findings showing that TRF2/SULF2 expression is a worse prognostic biomarker in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients

Safety and efficacy of SARS-Cov2 neutralizing monoclonal antibodies after stem cell transplant or CAR-T cell infusion

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Sarilumab plus standard of care vs standard of care for the treatment of severe COVID-19: a phase 3, randomized, open-labeled, multi-center study (ESCAPE study)Research in context

Summary: Background: Among interleukin-6 inhibitors suggested for use in COVID-19, there are few robust evidences for the efficacy of sarilumab. Herein, we evaluated the efficacy and safety of sarilumab in severe COVID-19. Methods: In this phase 3, open-labeled, randomized clinical trial, conducted at 5 Italian hospitals, adults with severe COVID-19 pneumonia (excluding mechanically ventilated) were randomized 2:1 to receive intravenous sarilumab (400 mg, repeatable after 12 h) plus standard of care (SOC) (arm A) or to continue SOC (arm B). Randomization was web-based. As post-hoc analyses, the participants were stratified according to baseline inflammatory parameters. The primary endpoint was analysed on the modified Intention-To-Treat population, including all the randomized patients who received any study treatment (sarilumab or SOC). It was time to clinical improvement of 2 points on a 7-points ordinal scale, from baseline to day 30. We used Kaplan Meier method and log-rank test to compare the primary outcome between two arms, and Cox regression stratified by clinical center and adjusted for severity of illness, to estimate the hazard ratio (HR). The trial was registered with EudraCT (2020-001390-76). Findings: Between May 2020 and May 2021, 191 patients were assessed for eligibility, of whom, excluding nine dropouts, 176 were assigned to arm A (121) and B (55). At day 30, no significant differences in the primary endpoint were found (88% [95% CI 81–94] in arm A vs 85% [74–93], HR 1.07 [0.8–1.5] in arm B; log-rank p = 0.50). After stratifying for inflammatory parameters, arm A showed higher probability of improvement than B without statistical significance in the strata with C reactive protein (CRP) < 7 mg/dL (88% [77–96] vs 79% [63–91], HR 1.55 [0.9–2.6]; log-rank p = 0.049) and in the strata with lymphocytes <870/mmc (90% [79–96]) vs (73% [55–89], HR 1.53 [0.9–2.7]; log-rank p = 0.058). Overall, 39/121 (32%) AEs were reported in arm A and 14/55 (23%) in B (p = 0.195), while serious AEs were 22/121 (18%) and 7/55 (11%), respectively (p = 0.244). There were no treatment-related deaths. Interpretation: The efficacy of sarilumab in severe COVID-19 was not demonstrated both in the overall and in the stratified for severity analysis population. Exploratory analyses suggested that subsets of patients with lower CRP values or lower lymphocyte counts might have had benefit with sarilumab treatment, but this finding would require replication in other studies. The relatively low rate of concomitant corticosteroid use, could partially explain our results. Funding: This study was supported by INMI “Lazzaro Spallanzani” Ricerca Corrente Linea 1 on emerging and reemerging infections, funded by Italian Ministry of Health