Autoxidation Products of the Methanolic Extract of the Leaves of Combretum micranthum Exert Antiviral Activity against Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus (ToBRFV)

open7noTomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV) is a new damaging plant virus of great interest from both an economical and research point of view. ToBRFV is transmitted by contact, remains infective for months, and to-date, no resistant cultivars have been developed. Due to the relevance of this virus, new effective, sustainable, and operator-safe antiviral agents are needed. Thus, 4- hydroxybenzoic acid was identified as the main product of the alkaline autoxidation at high temperature of the methanolic extract of the leaves of C. micranthum, known for antiviral activity. The autoxidized extract and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid were assayed in in vitro experiments, in combination with a mechanical inoculation test of tomato plants. Catechinic acid, a common product of rearrangement of catechins in hot alkaline solution, was also tested. Degradation of the viral particles, evidenced by the absence of detectable ToBRFV RNA and the loss of virus infectivity, as a possible consequence of disassembly of the virus coat protein (CP), were shown. Homology modeling was then applied to prepare the protein model of ToBRFV CP, and its structure was optimized. Molecular docking simulation showed the interactions of the two compounds, with the amino acid residues responsible for CP-CP interactions. Catechinic acid showed the best binding energy value in comparison with ribavirin, an anti-tobamovirus agent.openValeria Iobbi, Anna Paola Lanteri, Andrea Minuto, Valentina Santoro, Giuseppe Ferrea, Paola Fossa, Angela BisioIobbi, Valeria; Paola Lanteri, Anna; Minuto, Andrea; Santoro, Valentina; Ferrea, Giuseppe; Fossa, Paola; Bisio, Angel

Extended Stress–Strain Characterization of Automotive Steels at Dynamic Rates

Demanding structural applications require a detailed knowledge of the materials response up to the very late stages before failure. Ductile high-strength steels may undergo pronounced necking over the majority of their straining life; this makes a reliable stress–strain characterization difficult, especially at dynamic rates, because the self-heating from fast adiabatic dissipation may promote thermal effects interplaying with the strain rate effects. Further complications arise in deriving the postnecking flow curves when the material is a metal sheet due to geometrical issues intrinsic in the prismatic flat shape of the specimens. This paper focuses on the experimental derivation of the flow curves of DP1000 and MS1700 steels at strain rates ranging from 1 to 500/s. In addition, the moderately high temperatures achieved due to the self-heating at dynamic rates are imposed at static rates for separately investigating thermal and dynamic effects. Digital Image Correlation (DIC) and pixel counting optical techniques are used together with postprocessing procedures based on standard criteria and on physical considerations proposed by the authors. The resulting hardening curves are compared to each other and the advantages of the proposed method are discussed

Extended Stress–Strain Characterization of Automotive Steels at Dynamic Rates

Demanding structural applications require a detailed knowledge of the materials response up to the very late stages before failure. Ductile high-strength steels may undergo pronounced necking over the majority of their straining life; this makes a reliable stress–strain characterization difficult, especially at dynamic rates, because the self-heating from fast adiabatic dissipation may promote thermal effects interplaying with the strain rate effects. Further complications arise in deriving the postnecking flow curves when the material is a metal sheet due to geometrical issues intrinsic in the prismatic flat shape of the specimens. This paper focuses on the experimental derivation of the flow curves of DP1000 and MS1700 steels at strain rates ranging from 1 to 500/s. In addition, the moderately high temperatures achieved due to the self-heating at dynamic rates are imposed at static rates for separately investigating thermal and dynamic effects. Digital Image Correlation (DIC) and pixel counting optical techniques are used together with postprocessing procedures based on standard criteria and on physical considerations proposed by the authors. The resulting hardening curves are compared to each other and the advantages of the proposed method are discussed

The Ligurian Human Immunodeficiency Virus Clinical Network: A Web Tool to Manage Patients With Human Immunodeficiency Virus in Primary Care and Multicenter Clinical Trials

Background: In recent years, Highly-Active Anti-Retroviral Therapies (HAARTs) have modified the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) life-cycle and the disease is now considered chronic. Consequently, a longitudinal and complex follow-up is now required for HIV positive patients during their lifetime. Moreover, patients often encounter various complications due to comorbidities, related to the immunodeficiency state and HAARTs\u2019 side effects. Thus, HIV positive patients are involved in multicenter clinical trials (MCTs) to improve treatments and discover a preventive vaccine. Therefore, physicians require proper instruments to access comprehensive patient data for managing patients during follow-ups, and tools for data collection and analysis in MCTs. Objective: The Ligurian HIV Clinical Network aims to provide physicians with a Web-tool to administrate HIV positive patients\u2019 data within primary-care and to reuse the collected clinical information to perform MCTs in Northern Italy. Methods: The key aspect of the system is a relational database which allows the storage of various types of clinical information (eg, related to HIV, cardiovascular, or hepatic diseases) in multiple formats. The modular design of the database permits a rapid insertion of new parameters without requiring any changes in the database structure. Furthermore, codes from biomedical ontologies controlled vocabularies (\u201cLogical Observation Identifier Names and Codes\u201d, and \u201cInternational Classification of Diseases 9\u201d) and ontologies (\u201cSystematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms\u201d), units and normality ranges used by all partners participating in the project were collected to achieve a complete semantic interoperability. Accordingly, data can be automatically normalized through the z score formula and physicians can extract and correctly compare information with external statistical tools. Moreover, to respect patients\u2019 privacy and legal issues, a local identifier, determined through an HASH cryptography algorithm, is assigned to each patient during the registration process. The database is managed by a user-friendly Web-platform which allows quick access to information during medical examinations and the reusing of the collected data for present and future MCTs. Furthermore, a bidirectional middleware was created in order to import/export information through HL7 messaging. Hence, data can be manually entered by physicians or automatically collected within HL7-compliant Hospital Information systems. Results: Presently, the direct storage of patients\u2019 information from the San Paolo Hospital (Savona, Italy), and San Martino and Galliera hospitals in Genoa is in a test phase. Currently, 8 centers of Infectious Diseases (located in Liguria and Piedmont) are participating in the project and almost 400 HIV positive patients have been recorded in the system. Patient data has been used for primary care and research purposes. Currently, there are 4 on-going MCTs and preliminary results have already been presented at International HIV congresses. Conclusions: The Web-platform allows effective management, sharing and reuse of information within primary care and clinical research. In the future it is planned to share the clinical information from this network with other HL7-compliant workgroups and to extend the platform to other infective diseases (eg, hepatitis)