Using altmetrics for detecting impactful research in quasi-zero-day time-windows: the case of COVID-19

On December 31st 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) China Country Office was informed of cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology detected in Wuhan City. The cause of the syndrome was a new type of coronavirus isolated on January 7th 2020 and named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). SARS-CoV-2 is the cause of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Since January 2020 an ever increasing number of scientific works have appeared in literature. Identifying relevant research outcomes at very early stages is challenging. In this work we use COVID-19 as a use-case for investigating: (i) which tools and frameworks are mostly used for early scholarly communication; (ii) to what extent altmetrics can be used to identify potential impactful research in tight (i.e. quasi-zero-day) time-windows. A literature review with rigorous eligibility criteria is performed for gathering a sample composed of scientific papers about SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 appeared in literature in the tight time-window ranging from January 15th 2020 to February 24th 2020. This sample is used for building a knowledge graph that represents the knowledge about papers and indicators formally. This knowledge graph feeds a data analysis process which is applied for experimenting with altmetrics as impact indicators. We find moderate correlation among traditional citation count, citations on social media, and mentions on news and blogs. This suggests there is a common intended meaning of the citational acts associated with aforementioned indicators. Additionally, we define a method that harmonises different indicators for providing a multi-dimensional impact indicator.Comment: 21 pages, 12 figures, 4 table

Crystal structure, cobalt and iron speciation and oxygen non-stoichiometry of La0.6Sr0.4Co1-yFeyO3-δ nanorods for IT-SOFC cathodes

Single-phased La0.6Sr0.4Co1-yFeyO3-δ (y = 0.2, 0.5, 0.8) nanorods exhibiting the rhombohedral perovskite-type phase were synthesized by a pore-wetting technique. We studied their chemical composition, crystal and electronic structures, morphology and hyperfine properties as a function of the Co/Fe content of the samples. Our results demonstrate that Co cations exhibit a slightly lower oxidation state than Fe ones, resulting in a higher oxygen non-stoichiometry δ for Co-rich samples. In addition, the values of δ determined in this work for nanostructured samples are much higher than those reported in the literature for bulk materials. This can be attributed to the high number of defects in nanomaterials and is probably one important factor in the high electrochemical performance for the oxygen reduction reaction of nanostructured La0.6Sr0.4Co1-yFeyO3-δ IT-SOFC cathodes, which have been reported in a previous work.Fil: Mejía Gómez, Augusto Enrique. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana; ColombiaFil: Sacanell, Joaquin Gonzalo. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Constituyentes; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología; ArgentinaFil: Huck Iriart, Cristián. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Escuela de Ciencia y Tecnología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Ramos, Cinthia Paula. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Constituyentes; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología; ArgentinaFil: Soldati, Analía Leticia. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología; ArgentinaFil: Figueroa, Santiago Jose Alejandro. Centro Nacional de Pesquisa em Energia e Materiais; Brasil. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Tabacniks, Manfredo H.. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Fantini, Márcia C.. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Craievich, Aldo Felix. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Lamas, Diego Germán. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Escuela de Ciencia y Tecnología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

A random telegraph signal of Mittag-Leffler type

A general method is presented to explicitly compute autocovariance functions for non-Poisson dichotomous noise based on renewal theory. The method is specialized to a random telegraph signal of Mittag-Leffler type. Analytical predictions are compared to Monte Carlo simulations. Non-Poisson dichotomous noise is non-stationary and standard spectral methods fail to describe it properly as they assume stationarity.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PR

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy as Revisional Surgery in a Vertical Gastroplasty With Gastrogastric Fistula: A Simplified Technique

Gastrogastric fistula is one of the complications that can occur after vertical gastroplasty surgery for weight loss. We describe a novel sleeve gastrectomy technique to treat a proximal gastrogastric fistula after vertical gastroplasty

Laparoscopic Direct Supragastric left adrenalectomy

BACKGROUND: In this paper a novel laparoscopic approach to the left adrenal gland by the transabdominal anterior route is presented. This approach avoids an extensive viscera dissection to gain access to the left adrenal gland. METHODS: The first step of the procedure is the division of the gastrophrenic ligament and the section of 1 or 2 short gastric vessels in order to mobilize the gastric fundus. The gastric fundus is then pulled down, allowing a wide exposure of the left crus of the diaphragm, the perirenal fat, and the superior edge of the pancreatic body. The diaphragmatic-adrenal channel runs on the left crus, crosses the middle adrenal artery, and, usually, joins the left adrenal vein before its junction with the left renal vein. By pulling on the diaphragmatic vein, exposure of the adrenal vein is facilitated. The adrenal vein is then isolated and divided between clips. Using the monopolar electrocautery to control arteries and small veins, the mobilization of the gland is then completed. The adrenal gland is then placed in a plastic bag to prevent cell spillage and removed through an enlarged umbilical incision. RESULTS: During a 20-month period, 6 consecutive patients with left adrenal gland neoplasms have been operated on with the above mentioned original approach. The diameter of the adrenal mass ranged from 3 cm to 6 cm. No conversion to open surgery or complications have been registered. The mean operative time was 126 minutes. The mean length of hospitalization was 4.1 days (range 3 to 6). CONCLUSIONS: This approach offers a complete visualization of the left adrenal gland, avoiding mobilization of the spleen, pancreatic tail, and left flexure of the colon, and allows an early and easy control of the left adrenal vein so adrenalectomy can be safely performed