Biological activity of Bacillus spp. evaluated on eggs and larvae of red palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus

This study was conducted to characterize the Bacillus populations associated with dead Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, to develop a biological control for the red palm weevil. Dead adult beetles, collected throughout Sicily, were used for isolating internal and external spore forming bacteria (SFB) microbiota. The isolates, preliminarily allotted to the Bacillaceae family, were tested at 4 concentrations (103 to 106 CFU/mL) for their ability to inhibit hatching of eggs of R. ferrugineus and were used at 106 CFU/mL to monitor their insecticidal activity against 10 day-old larvae. Total amounts of SFB measured outside the skeleton and in the inners part of the beetles were 5.59-6.94 and 5.17-7.05 Log CFU/g, respectively. Hatching was inhibited markedly by 9 isolates, representing 9 distinct strains of 7 species (Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus pumilus, Bacillus subtilis, and Lysinibacillus sphaericus), especially by the strains B. pumilus GC43 and GC51, which exhibited lethal concentrations 50 (LC50) values of 1.60 × 103 and 9.84 × 103 CFU/mL, respectively. Among all the strains tested, only B. licheniformis CG62 exhibited significant insecticidal activity against red palm weevil larvae. The Bacillus isolates characterized and tested in this study inhibited the hatching of red palm weevils in a contact-dependent manner. Thus, these isolates can be used as a preventive rather than as a curative treatment. Keywords Bacillus, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, hatching assays, larvae, Pal

time dilation effect in an active observer and virtual environment requires apparent motion no dilation for retinal or world motion alone

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{MEYE}: Web-app for translational and real-time pupillometry

Pupil dynamics alterations have been found in patients affected by a variety of neuropsychiatric conditions, in- cluding autism. Studies in mouse models have used pupillometry for phenotypic assessment and as a proxy for arousal. Both in mice and humans, pupillometry is noninvasive and allows for longitudinal experiments sup- porting temporal specificity; however, its measure requires dedicated setups. Here, we introduce a convolu- tional neural network that performs online pupillometry in both mice and humans in a web app format. This solution dramatically simplifies the usage of the tool for the nonspecialist and nontechnical operators. Because a modern web browser is the only software requirement, this choice is of great interest given its easy deployment and setup time reduction. The tested model performances indicate that the tool is sensitive enough to detect both locomotor-induced and stimulus-evoked pupillary changes, and its output is compara- ble to state-of-the-art commercial devicesPupil dynamics alterations have been found in patients affected by a variety of neuropsychiatric conditions, including autism. Studies in mouse models have used pupillometry for phenotypic assessment and as a proxy for arousal. Both in mice and humans, pupillometry is noninvasive and allows for longitudinal experiments supporting temporal specificity; however, its measure requires dedicated setups. Here, we introduce a convolutional neural network that performs online pupillometry in both mice and humans in a web app format. This solution dramatically simplifies the usage of the tool for the nonspecialist and nontechnical operators. Because a modern web browser is the only software requirement, this choice is of great interest given its easy deployment and setup time reduction. The tested model performances indicate that the tool is sensitive enough to detect both locomotor-induced and stimulus-evoked pupillary changes, and its output is comparable to state-of-the-art commercial devices

Wastewater-based epidemiology for early warning of SARS-COV-2 circulation: A pilot study conducted in Sicily, Italy

There is increasing evidence of the use of wastewater-based epidemiology to integrate conventional monitoring assessing disease symptoms and signs of viruses in a specific territory. We present the results of SARS-CoV-2 environmental surveillance activity in wastewater samples collected between September 2020 and July 2021 in 9 wastewater treatment plants (WTPs) located in central and western Sicily, serving over 570,000 residents. The presence of SARS-CoV-2, determined in 206 wastewater samples using RT-qPCR assays, was correlated with the notified and geo-referenced cases on the areas served by the WTPs in the same study period. Overall, 51% of wastewater samples were positive. Samples were correlated with 33,807 SARS-CoV-2 cases, reported in 4 epidemic waves, with a cumulative prevalence of 5.9% among Sicilian residents. The results suggest that the daily prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 active cases was statistically significant and higher in areas with SARS-CoV-2 positive wastewater samples. According to these findings, the proposed method achieves a good sensitivity profile (78.3%) in areas with moderate or high viral circulation (≥133 cases/100,000 residents) and may represent a useful tool in the management of epidemics based on an environmental approach, although it is necessary to improve the accuracy of the process

Dupilumab in the treatment of severe uncontrolled chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP): A multicentric observational Phase IV real-life study (DUPIREAL)

Background Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) is associated with significant morbidity and reduced health-related quality of life. Findings from clinical trials have demonstrated the effectiveness of dupilumab in CRSwNP, although real-world evidence is still limited. Methods This Phase IV real-life, observational, multicenter study assessed the effectiveness and safety of dupilumab in patients with severe uncontrolled CRSwNP (n = 648) over the first year of treatment. We collected data at baseline and after 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months of follow-up. We focused on nasal polyps score (NPS), symptoms, and olfactory function. We stratified outcomes by comorbidities, previous surgery, and adherence to intranasal corticosteroids, and examined the success rates based on current guidelines, as well as potential predictors of response at each timepoint. Results We observed a significant decrease in NPS from a median value of 6 (IQR 5–6) at baseline to 1.0 (IQR 0.0–2.0) at 12 months (p < .001), and a significant decrease in Sino-Nasal Outcomes Test-22 (SNOT-22) from a median score of 58 (IQR 49–70) at baseline to 11 (IQR 6–21; p < .001) at 12 months. Sniffin' Sticks scores showed a significant increase over 12 months (p < .001) compared to baseline. The results were unaffected by concomitant diseases, number of previous surgeries, and adherence to topical steroids, except for minor differences in rapidity of action. An excellent-moderate response was observed in 96.9% of patients at 12 months based on EPOS 2020 criteria. Conclusions Our findings from this large-scale real-life study support the effectiveness of dupilumab as an add-on therapy in patients with severe uncontrolled CRSwNP in reducing polyp size and improving the quality of life, severity of symptoms, nasal congestion, and smell

Touch Accelerates Visual Awareness

International audienceTo efficiently interact with the external environment, our nervous system combines information arising from different sensory modalities. Recent evidence suggests that cross-modal interactions can be automatic and even unconscious, reflecting the ecological relevance of cross-modal processing. Here, we use continuous flash suppression (CFS) to directly investigate whether haptic signals can interact with visual signals outside of visual awareness. We measured suppression durations of visual gratings rendered invisible by CFS either during visual stimulation alone or during visuo-haptic stimulation. We found that active exploration of a haptic grating congruent in orientation with the suppressed visual grating reduced suppression durations both compared with visual-only stimulation and to incongruent visuo-haptic stimulation. We also found that the facilitatory effect of touch on visual suppression disappeared when the visual and haptic gratings were mismatched in either spatial frequency or orientation. Together, these results demonstrate that congruent touch can accelerate the rise to consciousness of a suppressed visual stimulus and that this unconscious cross-modal interaction depends on visuohaptic congruency. Furthermore, since CFS suppression is thought to occur early in visual cortical processing, our data reinforce the evidence suggesting that visuo-haptic interactions can occur at the earliest stages of cortical processing

Early Cross-modal Plasticity in Adults

It is known that, after a prolonged period of visual deprivation, the adult visual cortex can be recruited for nonvisual processing, reflecting cross-modal plasticity. Here, we investigated whether cross-modal plasticity can occur at short timescales in the typical adult brain by comparing the interaction between vision and touch during binocular rivalry before and after a brief period of monocular deprivation, which strongly alters ocular balance favoring the deprived eye. While viewing dichoptically two gratings of orthogonal orientation, participants were asked to actively explore a haptic grating congruent in orientation to one of the two rivalrous stimuli. We repeated this procedure before and after 150 min of monocular deprivation. We first confirmed that haptic stimulation interacted with vision during rivalry promoting dominance of the congruent visuo-haptic stimulus and that monocular deprivation increased the deprived eye and decreased the nondeprived eye dominance. Interestingly, after deprivation, we found that the effect of touch did not change for the nondeprived eye, hereas it disappeared for the deprived eye, which was potentiated after deprivation. The absence of visuo-haptic interaction for the deprived eye lasted for over 1 hr and was not attributable to a masking induced by the stronger response of the deprived eye as confirmed by a control experiment. Taken together, our results demonstrate that the adult human visual cortex retains a high degree of cross-modal plasticity, which can occur even at very short timescales