Long-term cardiac sequelae in patients referred into a diagnostic post-COVID-19 pathway: the Different Impacts on the Right and Left Ventricles

Most patients who had COVID-19 are still symptomatic after many months post infection, but the long-term outcomes are not yet well-defined. The aim of our prospective/retrospective study was to define the cardiac sequelae of COVID-19 infection. This monocentric cohort study included 160 consecutive patients who had been discharged from the ward or from the outpatient clinic after a diagnosis of COVID-19 and subsequently referred for a follow up visit. Clinical features data about the acute phase along with information about the follow up visit, including ECG and Echocardiographic parameters, were recorded. At an average follow-upfollow up of 5 months, echocardiography showed morpho-functional changes characteristics of both right (RV) and left (LV) ventricles, such as RV dilation, increased pressure in the pulmonary circulation, and biy-ventricular systolic-diastolic dysfunction. When examined using multivariate analysis, independent of age, sex, and co-morbidities, RV and LV changes were significantly associated with chest High Resolution computed tomography score and hemodynamic Instability (HI) and with C-reactive protein, respectively. Our results suggest that COVID-19 may impact RV and LV differently. Notably, the extent of the pneumonia and HI may affect RV, whereas the inflammatory status may influence LV. A long-term follow-up is warranted to refine and customize the most appropriate therapeutic strategies

River widening in mountain and foothill areas during floods: Insights from a meta-analysis of 51 European Rivers

River widening, defined as a lateral expansion of the channel, is a critical process that maintains fluvial ecosystems and is part of the regular functioning of rivers. However, in areas with high population density, channel widening can cause damage during floods. Therefore, for effective flood risk management it is essential to identify river reaches where abrupt channel widening may occur. Despite numerous efforts to predict channel widening, most studies have been limited to single rivers and single flood events, which may not be representative of other conditions. Moreover, a multi-catchment scale approach that covers various settings and flood magnitudes has been lacking. In this study, we fill this gap by compiling a large database comprising 1564 river reaches in several mountain regions in Europe affected by floods of varying magnitudes in the last six decades. By applying a meta-analysis, we aimed to identify the types of floods responsible for more extensive widening, the river reach types where intense widening is more likely to occur, and the hydraulic and morphological variables that explain widening and can aid in predicting widening. Our analysis revealed seven groups of reaches with significantly different responses to floods regarding width ratios (i.e., the ratio between channel width after and before a flood). Among these groups, the river reaches located in the Mediterranean region and affected by extreme floods triggered by short and intense precipitation events showed significantly larger widening than other river reaches in other regions. Additionally, the meta-analysis confirmed valley confinement as a critical morphological variable that controls channel widening but showed that it is not the only controlling factor. We proposed new statistical models to identify river reaches prone to widening, estimate potential channel width after a flood, and compute upper bound width ratios. These findings can inform flood hazard evaluations and the design of mitigation measures

Protein folding on the ribosome studied using NMR spectroscopy

NMR spectroscopy is a powerful tool for the investigation of protein folding and misfolding, providing a characterization of molecular structure, dynamics and exchange processes, across a very wide range of timescales and with near atomic resolution. In recent years NMR methods have also been developed to study protein folding as it might occur within the cell, in a de novo manner, by observing the folding of nascent polypeptides in the process of emerging from the ribosome during synthesis. Despite the 2.3 MDa molecular weight of the bacterial 70S ribosome, many nascent polypeptides, and some ribosomal proteins, have sufficient local flexibility that sharp resonances may be observed in solution-state NMR spectra. In providing information on dynamic regions of the structure, NMR spectroscopy is therefore highly complementary to alternative methods such as X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy, which have successfully characterized the rigid core of the ribosome particle. However, the low working concentrations and limited sample stability associated with ribosome-nascent chain complexes means that such studies still present significant technical challenges to the NMR spectroscopist. This review will discuss the progress that has been made in this area, surveying all NMR studies that have been published to date, and with a particular focus on strategies for improving experimental sensitivity

Relationships among porcine and human P[6] rotaviruses: Evidence that the different human P[6] lineages have originated from multiple interspecies transmission events

AbstractPorcine rotavirus strains (PoRVs) bearing human-like VP4 P[6] gene alleles were identified. Genetic characterization with either PCR genotyping or sequence analysis allowed to determine the VP7 specificity of the PoRVs as G3, G4, G5 and G9, and the VP6 as genogroup I, that is predictive of a subgroup I specificity. Sequence analysis of the VP8* trypsin-cleavage product of VP4 allowed PoRVs to be characterized further into genetic lineages within the P[6] genotype. Unexpectedly, the strains displayed significantly higher similarity (up to 94.6% and 92.5% at aa and nt level, respectively) to human M37-like P[6] strains (lineage I), serologically classifiable as P2A, or to the atypical Hungarian P[6] human strains (HRVs), designated as lineage V (up to 97.0% aa and 96.1% nt), than to the porcine P[6] strain Gottfried, lineage II (<85.1% aa and 82.2 nt), which is serologically classified as P2B. Interestingly, no P[6] PoRV resembling the original prototype porcine strain, Gottfried, was detected, while Japanase P[6] PoRV clustered with the atypical Japanase G1 human strain AU19. By analysis of the 10th and 11th genome segments, all the strains revealed a NSP4B genogroup (Wa-like) and a NSP5/6 gene of porcine origin. These findings strongly suggest interspecies transmission of rotavirus strains and/or genes, and may indicate the occurrence of at least 3 separate rotavirus transmission events between pigs and humans, providing convincing evidence that evolution of human rotaviruses is tightly intermingled with the evolution of animal rotaviruses

The European Commission Atmospheric Observatory

A comprehensive set of essential atmospheric variables have been measured in 2018 at the European Commission Atmospheric Observatory on the site of the historical EMEP-GAW station of the JRC in Ispra to continue the assessment of the impact of European policies and international conventions on air pollution and climate forcing that started in 1985. The variables we measure at the Atmospheric Observatory in Ispra include greenhouse gas concentrations (CO2, CH4), radon (222Rn) activity concentration, short-lived gaseous and particulate pollutant concentrations (CO, SO2, NO, NO2, O3, NMHCs, PM2.5 and its main ionic and carbonaceous constituents), atmospheric particle micro-physical characteristics (number concentration and size distribution) and optical properties (light scattering and absorption in-situ, light scattering and extinction vertical profiles remotely), eutrophying and acidifying species (sulphate, nitrate, ammonium) wet deposition. Vegetation - atmosphere exchanges (CO2, O3, H2O and heat) are measured at our Mediterranean Forest Flux Station of San Rossore, backed up by meteorological and pedological measurements.JRC.C.5-Air and Climat

Measurement of the top quark-pair production cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at \sqrt{s}=7\TeV

A measurement of the production cross-section for top quark pairs(\ttbar) in $pp$ collisions at \sqrt{s}=7 \TeV is presented using data recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in two different topologies: single lepton (electron $e$ or muon $\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least four jets, and dilepton ($ee$, $\mu\mu$ or $e\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least two jets. In a data sample of 2.9 pb-1, 37 candidate events are observed in the single-lepton topology and 9 events in the dilepton topology. The corresponding expected backgrounds from non-\ttbar Standard Model processes are estimated using data-driven methods and determined to be $12.2 \pm 3.9$ events and $2.5 \pm 0.6$ events, respectively. The kinematic properties of the selected events are consistent with SM \ttbar production. The inclusive top quark pair production cross-section is measured to be \sigmattbar=145 \pm 31 ^{+42}_{-27} pb where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The measurement agrees with perturbative QCD calculations.Comment: 30 pages plus author list (50 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, CERN-PH number and final journal adde

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurement of the top quark pair cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV using final states with an electron or a muon and a hadronically decaying τ lepton

A measurement of the cross section of top quark pair production in proton-proton collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is reported. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.05 fb -1. Events with an isolated electron or muon and a τ lepton decaying hadronically are used. In addition, a large missing transverse momentum and two or more energetic jets are required. At least one of the jets must be identified as originating from a b quark. The measured cross section, σtt-=186±13(stat.)±20(syst.)±7(lumi.) pb, is in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction

Hunt for new phenomena using large jet multiplicities and missing transverse momentum with ATLAS in 4.7 fb−1 of √s=7 TeV proton-proton collisions

Results are presented of a search for new particles decaying to large numbers of jets in association with missing transverse momentum, using 4.7 fb−1 of pp collision data at s√=7TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in 2011. The event selection requires missing transverse momentum, no isolated electrons or muons, and from ≥6 to ≥9 jets. No evidence is found for physics beyond the Standard Model. The results are interpreted in the context of a MSUGRA/CMSSM supersymmetric model, where, for large universal scalar mass m 0, gluino masses smaller than 840 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level, extending previously published limits. Within a simplified model containing only a gluino octet and a neutralino, gluino masses smaller than 870 GeV are similarly excluded for neutralino masses below 100 GeV