Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

EVALITA Evaluation of NLP and Speech Tools for Italian - December 17th, 2020

Welcome to EVALITA 2020! EVALITA is the evaluation campaign of Natural Language Processing and Speech Tools for Italian. EVALITA is an initiative of the Italian Association for Computational Linguistics (AILC, http://www.ai-lc.it) and it is endorsed by the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AIxIA, http://www.aixia.it) and the Italian Association for Speech Sciences (AISV, http://www.aisv.it)

Mechanisms of uranium and thorium accumulation in the bone matrix

International audienc

Coupling of native IEF and extended X-ray absorption fine structure to characterize zinc-binding sites from pI isoforms of SOD1 and A4V pathogenic mutant

Extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) has already provided high-resolution structures of metal-binding sites in a wide variety of metalloproteins. Usually, EXAFS is performed on purified metalloproteins either in solution or crystallized form but purification steps are prone tomodify the metallation state of the protein. We developed a protocol to couple EXAFS analysis to metalloprotein separation using native gel electrophoresis. This coupling opens a large field of applications as metalloproteins can be characterized in their native state avoiding purification steps. Using native isoelectric focusing, the method enables the EXAFS analysis of metalloprotein pI isoforms. We applied this methodology to SOD1, wild-type, and Ala4Val mutant (A4V), a mutation found in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) because decreased Zn affinity to SOD1 mutants is suggested to be involved in the pathogenesis of this neurodegenerative disease. We observed similar coordination structures for Zn in wild-type and mutant proteins, in all measured pI isoforms, demonstrating the feasibility of EXAFS on electrophoresis gels and suggesting that the Zn-binding site is not structurally modified in A4V SOD1 mutan

Melanoma cells inhibit natural killer cell function by modulating the expression of activating receptors and cytolytic activity

Abstract Natural killer (NK) cells play a key role in tumor immune surveillance. However, adoptive immunotherapy protocols using NK cells have shown limited clinical efficacy to date, possibly due to tumor escape mechanisms that inhibit NK cell function. In this study, we analyzed the effect of coculturing melanoma cells and NK cells on their phenotype and function. We found that melanoma cells inhibited the expression of major NK receptors that trigger their immune function, including NKp30, NKp44, and NKG2D, with consequent impairment of NK cell–mediated cytolytic activity against various melanoma cell lines. This inhibitory effect was primarily mediated by indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). Together, our findings suggest that immunosuppressive barriers erected by tumors greatly hamper the antitumor activity of human NK cells, thereby favoring tumor outgrowth and progression. Cancer Res; 72(6); 1407–15. ©2012 AACR.</jats:p

X-ray absorption spectroscopy investigations on radioactive matter using MARS beamline at SOLEIL synchrotron

International audienceThe MARS beamline at the SOLEIL synchrotron is dedicated to the characterization of radioactive material samples. One great advantage of the beamline is the possibility to characterize about 380 radionuclides by different X-ray techniques in the same place. This facility is unique in Europe. A wide energy range from around 3.5 keV to 36 keV K-edges from K to Cs, and L3 edges from Cd to Am and beyond can be used. The MARS beamline is optimized for X-ray absorption spectroscopy techniques (XANES/EXAFS), powder diffraction (XRD) but x-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis, High Energy Resolution Fluorescence Detected -XAS (HERFD-XAS), X-ray Emission (XES) and μ-XAS/XRD are also possible. A description of the beamline as well as its performances are given in a first part. Then some scientific examples of XAS studies from users are presented which cover a wide variety of topics in radiochemistry and nuclear materials

Behavior of Heptavalent Technetium in Sulfuric Acid under α‑Irradiation: Structural Determination of Technetium Sulfate Complexes by X‑ray Absorption Spectroscopy and First Principles Calculations

The effect of α-radiolysis on the behavior of heptavalent technetium has been investigated in 13 and 18 M H₂SO₄. Irradiation experiments were performed using α-particles (⁴He²⁺, <i>E</i> = 68 MeV) generated by the ARRONAX cyclotron. UV–visible and X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopic studies indicate that Tc­(VII) is reduced to Tc­(V) under α-irradiation. Extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy measurements are consistent with the presence of mononuclear technetium sulfate complexes. Experimental results and density functional calculations show the formation of [TcO­(HSO₄)₃(H₂O)­(OH)]⁻ and/or [TcO­(HSO₄)₃(H₂O)₂] and [Tc­(HSO₄)₃(SO₄)­(H₂O)] and/or [Tc­(HSO₄)₃(SO₄)­(OH)]⁻ for 13 and 18 M H₂SO₄, respectively