Amaranthus grain as a new ingredient in diets for dairy cows: productive, qualitative, and in vitro fermentation traits

Background: In recent decades, grain amaranths have attracted attention due to their valuable combination of nutritional traits, with higher protein and oil content than conventional cereals. Before they can be proposed as an unconventional ingredient in animal feed, many aspects still need to be investigated from field production to nutritive value. The present research aimed to study the agronomic traits, proximate composition, and digestibility/degradability, fatty acid profile, antioxidant activity, and total phenolic content of two grain amaranth species, Amaranthus cruentus and Amaranthus hypochondriacus (for a total of six accessions), grown in a Mediterranean environment. Results: Both species showed seed yields comparable to or higher than the traditional cereal crops in the same environment. On the whole, A. cruentus resulted in a higher seed production than A. hypochondriacus. Mexico and Montana accessions, both belonging to A. cruentus, showed the highest yield (3.73 t ha-1 , on average). Few differences emerged in nutritive value between species and accessions: the Illinois accession of A. cruentus showed the best performance in terms of in vitro degradability and gas production, but not for volatile fatty acid production; the fermentation kinetics was slowest in the Illinois accession and fastest in the Montana accession of A. cruentus and the India accession of A. hypochondriacus. Conclusion: From a health perspective, the Nebraska accession of A. hypochondriacus represents the best accession, with the lowest saturated fatty acid content and the highest polyunsaturated fatty acid content. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry

Capturing the chance for pneumococcal vaccination in the hospital setting

Introduction: Because of the relevant burden of pneumococcal diseases, people at risk and elderly are recommended vaccination but coverage is still low because of problems in catching them. This study evaluates the proportion of eligible patients in the hospital in the view of assessing its potential role in vaccination campaigns.Methods: this is a retrospective analysis of discharge data from all patients over 49 years of age admitted between 2011 and 2013 to ‘A. Gemelli’ teaching hospital. Eligibility for pneumococcal vaccination was evaluated based on ICD-9 codes.Results: among 65,047 unique patients, 53.2% were eligible for pneumococcal vaccination. Most common eligibility criteria were chronic heart diseases, cancer and diabetes. Considering also age ≥ 65 as an indication to vaccination, the proportion of eligible patients reached 76.8%. In absolute terms the most of eligible patients were seen in medical sciences, general surgery, cardiovascular medicine and neurosciences departments.Conclusions: the proportion of patients eligible to vaccination is high in the hospital and the latter may play an important role in catching them

Virtual Reality Analgesia for Pediatric Dental Patients

Background: Dental procedures often elicit pain and fear in pediatric dental patients.Aim: To evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of immersive virtual reality as an attention distraction analgesia technique for pain management in children and adolescents undergoing painful dental procedures.Design: Using a within-subjects design, five patients (mean age 13.20 years old, SD 2.39) participated. Patients received tethered immersive interactive virtual reality distraction in an Oculus Rift VR helmet (experimental condition) during one dental procedure (a single dental filling or tooth extraction). On a different visit to the same dentist (e.g., 1 week later), each patient also received a comparable dental procedure during the control condition “treatment as usual” (treatment order randomized). After each procedure, children self-rated their “worst pain,” “pain unpleasantness,” “time spent thinking about pain,” “presence in VR,” “fun,” and “nausea” levels during the dental procedures, using graphic rating scales.Results: Patients reported significantly lower “worst pain” and “pain unpleasantness,” and had significantly more fun during VR, compared to a comparable dental procedure with No VR. Using Oculus Rift VR goggles, patients reported a “strong sense of going inside the computer-generated world,” without side effects. The dentist preferred having the patients in VR.Conclusion: Results of this pilot study provide preliminary evidence of the feasibility of using immersive, interactive VR to distract pediatric dental patients and increase fun of children during dental procedures

Reduction of hospitalizations for myocardial infarction in Italy in the COVID-19 era

Aims: To evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patient admissions to Italian cardiac care units (CCUs). Methods and results: We conducted a multicentre, observational, nationwide survey to collect data on admissions for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) at Italian CCUs throughout a 1 week period during the COVID-19 outbreak, compared with the equivalent week in 2019. We observed a 48.4% reduction in admissions for AMI compared with the equivalent week in 2019 (P < 0.001). The reduction was significant for both ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction [STEMI; 26.5%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 21.7-32.3; P = 0.009] and non-STEMI (NSTEMI; 65.1%, 95% CI 60.3-70.3; P < 0.001). Among STEMIs, the reduction was higher for women (41.2%; P = 0.011) than men (17.8%; P = 0.191). A similar reduction in AMI admissions was registered in North Italy (52.1%), Central Italy (59.3%), and South Italy (52.1%). The STEMI case fatality rate during the pandemic was substantially increased compared with 2019 [risk ratio (RR) = 3.3, 95% CI 1.7-6.6; P < 0.001]. A parallel increase in complications was also registered (RR = 1.8, 95% CI 1.1-2.8; P = 0.009). Conclusion: Admissions for AMI were significantly reduced during the COVID-19 pandemic across Italy, with a parallel increase in fatality and complication rates. This constitutes a serious social issue, demanding attention by the scientific and healthcare communities and public regulatory agencies

In Vitro and In Vivo Human Herpesvirus 8 Infection of Placenta

Herpesvirus infection of placenta may be harmful in pregnancy leading to disorders in fetal growth, premature delivery, miscarriage, or major congenital abnormalities. Although a correlation between human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) infection and abortion or low birth weight in children has been suggested, and rare cases of in utero or perinatal HHV-8 transmission have been documented, no direct evidence of HHV-8 infection of placenta has yet been reported. The aim of this study was to evaluate the in vitro and in vivo susceptibility of placental cells to HHV-8 infection. Short-term infection assays were performed on placental chorionic villi isolated from term placentae. Qualitative and quantitative HHV-8 detection were performed by PCR and real-time PCR, and HHV-8 proteins were analyzed by immunohistochemistry. Term placenta samples from HHV-8-seropositive women were analyzed for the presence of HHV-8 DNA and antigens. In vitro infected histocultures showed increasing amounts of HHV-8 DNA in tissues and supernatants; cyto- and syncitiotrophoblasts, as well as endothelial cells, expressed latent and lytic viral antigens. Increased apoptotic phenomena were visualized by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxyuridine nick end-labeling method in infected histocultures. Ex vivo, HHV-8 DNA and a latent viral antigen were detected in placenta samples from HHV-8-seropositive women. These findings demonstrate that HHV-8, like other human herpesviruses, may infect placental cells in vitro and in vivo, thus providing evidence that this phenomenon might influence vertical transmission and pregnancy outcome in HHV-8-infected women

Early Results from GLASS-JWST. XIX: A High Density of Bright Galaxies at z≈10z\approx10 in the Abell 2744 Region

We report the detection of a high density of redshift $z\approx 10$ galaxies behind the foreground cluster Abell 2744, selected from imaging data obtained recently with NIRCam onboard {\it JWST} by three programs -- GLASS-JWST, UNCOVER, and DDT\#2756. To ensure robust estimates of the lensing magnification $\mu$, we use an improved version of our model that exploits the first epoch of NIRCam images and newly obtained MUSE spectra, and avoids regions with $\mu>5$ where the uncertainty may be higher. We detect seven bright $z\approx 10$ galaxies with demagnified rest-frame $-22 \lesssim M_{\rm UV}\lesssim -19$ mag, over an area of $\sim37$ sq. arcmin. Taking into account photometric incompleteness and the effects of lensing on luminosity and cosmological volume, we find that the density of $z\approx 10$ galaxies in the field is about $10\times$ ($3\times$) larger than the average at $M_{UV}\approx -21~ (-20)$ mag reported so far. The density is even higher when considering only the GLASS-JWST data, which are the deepest and the least affected by magnification and incompleteness. The GLASS-JWST field contains 5 out of 7 galaxies, distributed along an apparent filamentary structure of 2 Mpc in projected length, and includes a close pair of candidates with $M_{\rm UV}< -20$ mag having a projected separation of only 16 kpc. These findings suggest the presence of a $z\approx 10$ overdensity in the field. In addition to providing excellent targets for efficient spectroscopic follow-up observations, our study confirms the high density of bright galaxies observed in early {\it JWST} observations, but calls for multiple surveys along independent lines of sight to achieve an unbiased estimate of their average density and a first estimate of their clustering.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL, 13 pages, 4 figure

High Levels of Exosomes Expressing CD63 and Caveolin-1 in Plasma of Melanoma Patients

BACKGROUND: Metastatic melanoma is an untreatable cancer lacking reliable and non-invasive markers of disease progression. Exosomes are small vesicles secreted by normal as well as tumor cells. Human tumor-derived exosomes are involved in malignant progression and we evaluated the presence of exosomes in plasma of melanoma patients as a potential tool for cancer screening and follow-up. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We designed an in-house sandwich ELISA (Exotest) to capture and quantify exosomes in plasma based on expression of housekeeping proteins (CD63 and Rab-5b) and a tumor-associated marker (caveolin-1). Western blot and flow cytometry analysis of exosomes were used to confirm the Exotest-based findings. The Exotest allowed sensitive detection and quantification of exosomes purified from human tumor cell culture supernatants and plasma from SCID mice engrafted with human melanoma. Plasma levels of exosomes in melanoma-engrafted SCID mice correlated to tumor size. We evaluated the levels of plasma exosomes expressing CD63 and caveolin-1 in melanoma patients (n = 90) and healthy donors (n = 58). Consistently, plasma exosomes expressing CD63 (504+/-315) or caveolin-1 (619+/-310) were significantly increased in melanoma patients as compared to healthy donors (223+/-125 and 228+/-102, respectively). While the Exotest for CD63+ plasma exosomes had limited sensitivity (43%) the Exotest for detection of caveolin-1+ plasma exosomes showed a higher sensitivity (68%). Moreover, caveolin-1+ plasma exosomes were significantly increased with respect to CD63+ exosomes in the patients group. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We describe a new non-invasive assay allowing detection and quantification of human exosomes in plasma of melanoma patients. Our results suggest that the Exotest for detection of plasma exosomes carrying tumor-associated antigens may represent a novel tool for clinical management of cancer patients

High Risk of Secondary Infections Following Thrombotic Complications in Patients With COVID-19

Background. This study’s primary aim was to evaluate the impact of thrombotic complications on the development of secondary infections. The secondary aim was to compare the etiology of secondary infections in patients with and without thrombotic complications. Methods. This was a cohort study (NCT04318366) of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients hospitalized at IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital between February 25 and June 30, 2020. Incidence rates (IRs) were calculated by univariable Poisson regression as the number of cases per 1000 person-days of follow-up (PDFU) with 95% confidence intervals. The cumulative incidence functions of secondary infections according to thrombotic complications were compared with Gray’s method accounting for competing risk of death. A multivariable Fine-Gray model was applied to assess factors associated with risk of secondary infections. Results. Overall, 109/904 patients had 176 secondary infections (IR, 10.0; 95% CI, 8.8–11.5; per 1000-PDFU). The IRs of secondary infections among patients with or without thrombotic complications were 15.0 (95% CI, 10.7–21.0) and 9.3 (95% CI, 7.9–11.0) per 1000-PDFU, respectively (P = .017). At multivariable analysis, thrombotic complications were associated with the development of secondary infections (subdistribution hazard ratio, 1.788; 95% CI, 1.018–3.140; P = .043). The etiology of secondary infections was similar in patients with and without thrombotic complications. Conclusions. In patients with COVID-19, thrombotic complications were associated with a high risk of secondary infections