Effects of ambient temperature, humidity, and other meteorological variables on hospital admissions for angina pectoris.

BACKGROUND: Seasonal peaks in cardiovascular disease incidence have been widely reported, suggesting weather has a role. DESIGN: The aim of our study was to determine the influence of climatic variables on angina pectoris hospital admissions. METHODS: We correlated the daily number of angina cases admitted to a western Sicilian hospital over a period of 12 years and local weather conditions (temperature, humidity, wind force and direction, precipitation, sunny hours and atmospheric pressure) on a day-to-day basis. A total of 2459 consecutive patients were admitted over the period 1987-1998 (1562 men, 867 women; M/F - 1:8). RESULTS: A seasonal variation was found with a noticeable winter peak. The results of Multivariate Poisson analysis showed a significant association between the daily number of angina hospital admission, temperature, and humidity. Significant incidence relative ratios (95% confidence intervals/measure unit) were, in males, 0.988 (0.980-0.996) (p = 0.004) for minimal temperature, 0.990 (0.984-0.996) (p = 0.001) for maximal humidity, and 1.002 (1.000-1.004) (p = 0.045) for minimal humidity. The corresponding values in females were 0.973 (0.951-0.995) (p < 0.017) for maximal temperature and 1.024 (1.001-1.048) (p = 0.037) for minimal temperature. CONCLUSIONS: Environmental temperature and humidity may play an important role in the pathogenesis of angina, although it seems different according to the gender. These data may help to understand the mechanisms that trigger ischemic events and to better organize hospital assistance throughout the year

Canine parvovirus and pseudorabies virus coinfection as a cause of death in a wolf (Canis lupus) from southern Italy

Pseudorabies virus (PRV) or suid herpesvirus 1 (SHV-1) is the causative agent of Aujeszky's disease, a highly contagious viral infection which causes neurological fatal illness in mammals other than suids. Here we report a case of a young wolf (Canis lupus) of around 2 years found dead by a hunter in the province of Avellino, Campania Region. Necropsy showed pathological findings consistent with encephalitis and gastroenteritis. Organs were analysed by microbiological and molecular investigations following standard procedures to ascertain the possible cause of death. Real-time PCR revealed the presence of PRV in the brain and of canine parvovirus 2b in organs like intestine, liver, brain, kidney and pancreas. Death probably occurred very shortly after SHV-1 infection in an animal already weakened by parvovirosis

Candida Bezoars with Urinary Tract Obstruction in Two Women without Immunocompromising Conditions

More than half of the cases of fungal infections of the urinary tract are caused by Candida sp., but occurrence of obstructive uropathy caused by mycetomas or fungus balls (urobezoars) is extremely rare. The latter are conglomerates of fungal hyphae. Diabetes mellitus, immunosuppression, chronic disease, and malignancies are known predisposing factors. Preoperative imaging is not pathognomonic; blood clots, radiolucent urinary calculi, air bubbles, and inflammatory debris can mimic urobezoars. We report on two otherwise healthy women presenting with urinary tract obstruction caused by candidal mycetomas of the renal pelvis that mimicked matrix lithiasis

Costs-benefit Analysis for the use of Shallow Groundwater as non-conventional Water Resource

Encouraging the implementation of non-conventional water resources (NCWR) is a fundamental strategy to face the future challenges due to urban population growth and resource scarcity. The implementation of a systematic process of Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) offers reliable economic indicators to support decision makers in taking actions shifting towards NCWR. While infrastructure costs are directly estimated, while the benefits depend upon the considered stakeholders and require a tough estimation of the achieved ecosystem services. This research provides a framework for CBA analysis adopting NCWR at municipal level. The framework has been then applied to two case studies in Milan focused on the exploitation of shallow groundwater, where the obtained economic indicators has stressed out the importance of considering a complete benefits analysis that could support incentive policies on shifting part of the financial benefits to direct users leading to benefits for the whole community

Taste Perception And Food Choices

OBJECTIVES: The extent to which variation in taste perception influences food preferences is, to date, controversial. Bitterness in food triggers an innate aversion that is responsible for dietary restriction in children. We investigated the association among genetic variations in bitter receptor TAS2R38 and food choices in healthy children in the Mediterranean area, to develop appropriate tools to evaluate the relation among genetic predisposition, dietary habits, and feeding disorders. The aims of the study were to get a first baseline picture of taste sensitivity in healthy adults and their children and to explore taste sensitivity in a preliminary sample of obese children and in samples affected by functional gastrointestinal diseases. METHODS: Individuals (98 children, 87 parents, 120 adults) were recruited from the general population in southern Italy. Bitterness sensitivity was assessed by means of a suprathreshold method with 6-propyl-2-thiouracil. Genomic DNA from saliva was used to genotype individuals for 3 polymorphisms of TAS2R38 receptor, A49P, A262 V, and V296I. Food intake was assessed by a food frequency questionnaire. RESULTS: Children's taste sensation differed from that of adults: we observed a higher frequency of supertasters among children even in the mother-child dyads with the same diplotypes. Among adults, supertaster status was related with proline-alanine-valine (taster allele) homozygous haplotype, whereas supertaster children were mainly heterozygous. Regarding the food choices, we found that a higher percentage of taster children avoided bitter vegetables or greens altogether compared with taster adults. Taster status was also associated with body mass index in boys. CONCLUSIONS: Greater sensitivity to 6-propyl-2-thiouracil predicts lower preferences for vegetables in children, showing an appreciable effect of the genetic predisposition on food choices. None of the obese boys was a supertaster

Apparent Diffusion Coefficient Assessment of Brain Development in Normal Fetuses and Ventriculomegaly

Diffusion neuro-MRI has benefited significantly from sophisticated pre-processing procedures aimed at improving image quality and diagnostic. In this work, diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) was used with artifact correction and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) was quantified to investigate fetal brain development. The DWI protocol was designed in order to limit the acquisition time and to estimate ADC without perfusion bias. The ADC in normal fetal brains was compared to cases with isolated ventriculomegaly (VM), a common fetal disease whose DWI studies are still scarce. DWI was performed in 58 singleton fetuses (Gestational age (GA) range: 19–38w) at 1.5T. In 31 cases, VM was diagnosed on ultrasound. DW-Spin Echo EPI with b-values = 50, 200, 700 s/mm2 along three orthogonal axes was used. All images were corrected for noise, Gibbs-ringing, and motion artifacts. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was calculated and the ADC was measured with a linear least-squared algorithm. A multi-way ANOVA was used to evaluate differences in ADC between normal and VM cases and between second and third trimester in different brain regions. Correlation between ADC and GA was assessed with linear and quadratic regression analysis. Noise and artifact correction considerably increased SNR and the goodness-of-fit. ADC measurements were significantly different between second and third trimester in centrum semiovale, frontal white matter, thalamus, cerebellum and pons of both normal and VM brains (p ≤ 0.03). ADC values were significantly different between normal and VM in centrum semiovale and frontal white matter (p ≤ 0.02). ADC values in centrum semiovale, thalamus, cerebellum and pons linearly decreased with GA both in normal and VM brains, while a quadratic relation with GA was found in basal ganglia and occipital white matter of normal brains and in frontal white matter of VM (p ≤ 0.02). ADC values in all fetal brain regions were lower than those reported in literature where DWI with b = 0 was performed. Conversely, they were in agreement with the results of other authors who measured perfusion and diffusion contributions separately. By optimizing our DWI protocol we achieved an unbiased quantification of brain ADC in reasonable scan time. Our findings suggested that ADC can be a useful biomarker of brain abnormalities associated with VM

Intrinsic paramagnetic meissner effect due to s-wave odd-frequency superconductivity

In 1933, Meissner and Ochsenfeld reported the expulsion of magnetic flux, the diamagnetic Meissner effect, from the interior of superconducting lead. This discovery was crucial in formulating the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory of superconductivity. In exotic superconducting systems BCS theory does not strictly apply. A classical example is a superconductor-magnet hybrid system where magnetic ordering breaks time-reversal symmetry of the superconducting condensate and results in the stabilisation of an odd-frequency superconducting state. It has been predicted that under appropriate conditions, odd-frequency superconductivity should manifest in the Meissner state as fluctuations in the sign of the magnetic susceptibility meaning that the superconductivity can either repel (diamagnetic) or attract (paramagnetic) external magnetic flux. Here we report local probe measurements of faint magnetic fields in a Au/Ho/Nb trilayer system using low energy muons, where antiferromagnetic Ho (4.5 nm) breaks time-reversal symmetry of the proximity induced pair correlations in Au. From depth-resolved measurements below the superconducting transition of Nb we observe a local enhancement of the magnetic field in Au that exceeds the externally applied field, thus proving the existence of an intrinsic paramagnetic Meissner effect arising from an odd-frequency superconducting state.J.W.A.R. acknowledges financial support from the Royal Society through a University Research Fellowship. J.W.A.R. and A.D.B. acknowledge financial support from the UK EPSRC through NanoDTC EP/G037221/1 and the Leverhulme Trust through an International Network Grant (IN-2013-033). A.D.B. also acknowledges additional financial support from the Schiff Foundation. X.L.W. and J.H.Z. acknowledge support from the MOST of China (2015CB921500). J.L. acknowledges support from the Outstanding Academic Fellows programme at NTNU, the Norwegian Research Council Grant (205591, FRINAT, 216700). J. L., J.W.A.R, and A.D.B. finally acknowledge support from the COST Action MP-1201 'Novel Functionalities through Optimized Confinement of Condensate and Fields.' S.L. and M.G.F. acknowledge the support of the EPSRC through Grant No. EP/J01060X. The muSR measurements were performed at the Swiss Muon Source (SµS), at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen, Switzerland. The project has also received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under the NMI3-II Grant number 283883.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from APS via http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.5.04102