Influenza molecular diagnostic testing in a 1000-bed academic Italian hospital during the 2018\u201319 influenza season

Aim: The aims of this study were to examine the requests for influenza molecular tests processed by the Virology Laboratory of the University Hospital of Udine during the 2018\u201319 influenza season and to assess the test results and to estimate costs. Subjects and methods: We analyzed various administrative databases of the hospital health information system, which can be deterministically linked at the individual level through an anonymous stochastic key. Requests for influenza molecular tests from November 1, 2018, to April 15, 2019, and test results were described by week and, for hospitalized patients, hospital ward. Previous vaccination status of tested patients, outcomes and estimated test costs were assessed. Results: In the 2018\u201319 influenza season, 979 influenza A and B virologic tests were processed by the laboratory, corresponding to 758 patients. Requests had more than doubled compared with the previous influenza season. Rapid real-time PCR tests, routinely available at the University Hospital of Udine since January 2019, represented 17% of requests. Six hundred forty-eight patients were hospitalized. Medical wards requested the test after a median of 1 day after admission, whereas requests were delayed for surgical and oncologic patients. The number of tests, proportion of positivity and consumption of rapid tests varied by medical specialty. Overall consumption of oseltamivir was similar to that of the previous influenza season. Conclusions: This analysis, benefiting from the availability of integrated health administrative databases, provided useful information to support public health decision-making and managing the supply and demand for diagnostic tests

Tracking the source of the hepatitis B virus-specific CD8 T cells during lamivudine treatment

Lamivudine treatment in chronic hepatitis B leads to the reconstitution of virus-specific T cells in the circulation, but it is not clear whether this is the preferential result of T cell efflux from the liver or lymph nodes. To address this question, the frequency and function of liver-, lymph node-, and blood-derived hepatitis B virus (HBV)-specific CD8 T cells were analyzed in patients treated with lamivudine and undergoing liver transplantation. HBV-specific CD8 T cells, identified in portal lymph nodes, were able to expand in vitro after antigen-specific stimulation and displayed a heterogeneous profile of cytokine production. These findings suggest that the peripherally reconstituted HBV-specific CD8 T cells can originate from precursor cells within lymph nodes

Caracterização Bioquímica e Farmacológica da Sp-ctx -toxina Multifuncional da Peçonha do Peixe Escorpião scorpaena Plumieri

Citolisinas são produzidas por diversos organismos e apresentam atividade tóxica a células individuais, causando dissolução através de lise. Citolisinas de peçonhas de peixes são proteínas multifuncionais que apresentam efeitos neurotóxicos, cardiotóxicos e inflamatórios, sendo descritas como fatores proteicos letais. Uma citolisina hemolítica lábil, formadora de poro, denominada Sp-CTx Scorpaena plumieri - Cytolytic Toxin (glicoproteína, 2 subunidades de 65 kDa), foi recentemente purificada da peçonha do peixe escorpião Scorpaena plumieri. O objetivo deste trabalho foi estabelecer condições ótimas de manutenção da atividade hemolítica de Sp-CTx e dar continuidade à sua caracterização bioquímica e farmacológica. A estabilidade da Sp-CTx em diferentes condições (pH, temperatura e presença de cosolutos) e o efeito de diferentes cátions e lipídios de membrana sobre a atividade hemolítica foram avaliadas em eritrócitos de coelho. Foi demonstrado que a atividade hemolítica da Sp-CTx é mantida quando armazenada em 500 mM de NaCl, 1 M de sulfato de amônio, 60 mM de trealose e 10% de glicerol em pH 7,4 a 4 ºC e em glicerol 10% a -80 e -196 ºC. Também foi visto que a atividade hemolítica da Sp-CTx é dependente de cálcio e é completamente inibida por EDTA. O colesterol e o fosfatidilglicerol reduziram a hemólise induzida pela toxina, o que sugere que a toxina forma poro do tipo barril e é dependente da interação eletrostática com lipídios de membrana. Os motivos de carboidratos da Sp-CTx foram avaliados por western blot usando o kit DIG Glycan Differentiation sugerindo a presença dos motivos: galactose (1-4) N-acetilglucosamina e ácido siálico (2-3) galactose em complexos de N- e/ou O-glicanos. A resposta inflamatória induzida pela Sp-CTx foi avaliada usando como modelo o teste da pata de camundongo. Sp-CTx induziu nocicepção e resposta edematogênica local dose-dependente. O edema induzido foi significativamente reduzido pela administração prévia de HOE-140 e de aprotinina. Estes dados evidenciam o envolvimento do sistema calicreína cinina na resposta inflamatória induzida por Sp-CTx

UWB FastlyTunable 0.550 GHz RF Transmitter based on Integrated Photonics

Currently, due to the 6G revolution, applications ranging from communication to sensing are experiencing an increasing and urgent need of software-defined ultra-wideband (UWB) and tunable radio frequency (RF) apparatuses with low size, weight, and power consumption (SWaP). Unfortunately, the coexistence of ultra-wideband and software-defined operation, tunability and low SWaP represents a big issue in the current RF technologies. Recently, photonic techniques have been demonstrated to support achieving the desired features when applied in RF UWB transmitters, introducing extremely wide operation and instantaneous bandwidth, tunable filtering, tunable photonics-based microwave mixing with very high port-to-port isolation, and intrinsic immunity to electromagnetic interferences. Moreover, the recent advances in photonics integration also allow to obtain very compact devices. In this article, to the best of our knowledge, the first example of a complete tunable software-defined RF transmitter with low footprint (i.e. on photonic chip) is presented exceeding the state-of-the-art for the extremely large tunability range of 0.5-50 GHz without any parallelization of narrower-band components and with fast tuning (< 200 s). This first implementation represents a breakthrough in microwave photonics

Computational simulation of one-dimensional waves with the Multigrid Method / Simulação computacional de ondas unidimensionais com o Método Multigrid

Several Engineering problems are modeled computationally, these simulations involve large systems, which are commonly difficult to solve. This paper deals with the simulation of one-dimensional waves, where the system resulting from the discretization by the Finite Difference Method is solved using the Multigrid Method with the conventional Gauss-Seidel solver, in order to decrease the computational time. Temporal discretization using the Time-Stepping method, where the system of equations is solved at each time step sequentially

Does the use of playback affect the estimated numbers of red–legged partridge Alectoris rufa?

¿Afecta el uso de playback a las cifras estimadas de perdiz roja, Alectoris rufa? La perdiz roja, Alectoris rufa, vive en una situación de riesgo potencial en cuanto a su conservación a largo plazo en Italia, dado que su hábitat se ve cada vez más amenazado por la desaparición de los ambientes tradicionalmente relacionados con la agricultura. En tal situación, es importante aplicar métodos de control efectivos para estudiar los cambios poblacionales a través del tiempo, y la identificación de amenazas potenciales a la conservación. El objetivo de este estudio era evaluar la efectividad del método de playback para estimar la densidad de machos que vocalizaban. Comparamos el método del playback con las llamadas espontáneas de los machos al amanecer, y las observaciones directas a lo largo de transectos. El resultado de los datos sin procesar de los recuentos mediante playback revelaron una gran tasa de subestimación, comparados con el método que rindió los mejores resultados: el recuento de vocalizaciones espontáneas al amanecer. Nuestro estudio proporciona una evaluación crítica de un método que está ampliamente extendido, aunque los datos sobre su eficacia son escasos. Nuestros datos no evalúan la probabilidad de detección de los tres métodos. Nuestra intención era únicamente evaluar qué métodos arrojan los mejores resultados en términos de la estimación del tamaño de la población en las mismas condiciones de campo (misma densidad de población, mismo periodo, misma área de monitorización). Los resultados arrojan algunas dudas sobre la capacidad del método del playback para monitorizar las poblaciones de perdiz roja. Se discuten las implicaciones de nuestros resultados para su aplicación en la gestión de poblaciones de perdiz roja.¿Afecta el uso de playback a las cifras estimadas de perdiz roja, Alectoris rufa? La perdiz roja, Alectoris rufa, vive en una situación de riesgo potencial en cuanto a su conservación a largo plazo en Italia, dado que su hábitat se ve cada vez más amenazado por la desaparición de los ambientes tradicionalmente relacionados con la agricultura. En tal situación, es importante aplicar métodos de control efectivos para estudiar los cambios poblacionales a través del tiempo, y la identificación de amenazas potenciales a la conservación. El objetivo de este estudio era evaluar la efectividad del método de playback para estimar la densidad de machos que vocalizaban. Comparamos el método del playback con las llamadas espontáneas de los machos al amanecer, y las observaciones directas a lo largo de transectos. El resultado de los datos sin procesar de los recuentos mediante playback revelaron una gran tasa de subestimación, comparados con el método que rindió los mejores resultados: el recuento de vocalizaciones espontáneas al amanecer. Nuestro estudio proporciona una evaluación crítica de un método que está ampliamente extendido, aunque los datos sobre su eficacia son escasos. Nuestros datos no evalúan la probabilidad de detección de los tres métodos. Nuestra intención era únicamente evaluar qué métodos arrojan los mejores resultados en términos de la estimación del tamaño de la población en las mismas condiciones de campo (misma densidad de población, mismo periodo, misma área de monitorización). Los resultados arrojan algunas dudas sobre la capacidad del método del playback para monitorizar las poblaciones de perdiz roja. Se discuten las implicaciones de nuestros resultados para su aplicación en la gestión de poblaciones de perdiz roja.The red–legged partridge Alectoris rufa lives in a situation of potential conservation risk for its long–term preservation in Italy as its habitat is increasingly threatened by the disappearance of traditional agriculture–related environments. In such a situation, it is important to use effective and appropriate monitoring methods to assess population changes over time and to identify potential conservation threats. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the playback method to estimate the density of calling males. We compared playback method with spontaneous calling of males at dawn and direct observations along transects. The results on raw count data of playback counts revealed a strong underestimation rate compared to the method that gave the best results: count of spontaneous calls at dawn. Our study provides a critical evaluation of a method that is widely used even though data about its effectiveness are scarce. Our data do not evaluate detection probability of the three methods. Our aim was only to evaluate which methods give the best results in term of population size estimation under the same field condition (same population density, same period, same monitoring area). The results raise some doubts about the ability of the playback method to monitor red–legged partridge populations. The implications of our results for red–legged population management are discussed