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Establishing a Unified COVID-19 "Immunome": Integrating Coronavirus Pathogenesis and Host Immunopathology.
Depth of reading vocabulary in hearing and hearing-impaired children
The main point of our study was to examine the vocabulary knowledge of pupils in grades 3â6, and in particular the relative reading vocabulary disadvantage of hearing-impaired pupils. The achievements of 394 pupils with normal hearing and 106 pupils with a hearing impairment were examined on two vocabulary assessment tasks: a lexical decision task and a use decision task. The target words in both tasks represent the vocabulary children should have at the end of primary school. The results showed that most hearing pupils reached this norm, whereas most hearing-impaired pupils did not. In addition, results showed that hearing-impaired pupils not only knew fewer words, but that they also knew them less well. This lack of deeper knowledge remained even when matching hearing and hearing-impaired children on minimal word knowledge. Additionally, comparison of the two tasks demonstrated the efficacy of the lexical decision task as a measure of lexical semantic knowledge
Towards Precision Muonic X-Ray Measurements of Charge Radii of Light Nuclei
Precision studies of the properties of nuclei are essential both for
understanding nuclear physics at low energy, and for confronting experiment and
theory in simple atomic systems. Such comparisons advance our understanding of
bound-state quantum electrodynamics and are useful for searching for new
physics beyond the Standard Model. The energy levels of muonic atoms are highly
susceptible to nuclear structure, especially to the RMS charge radius. The
radii of the lightest nuclei () have been determined with high accuracy
via laser spectroscopy in muonic atoms, while those of medium mass and above,
from X-ray spectroscopy with semiconductor detectors. In this communication we
present a new experiment aiming at precision measurements of the radii of light
nuclei via single-photon energy measurements with cryogenic
microcalorimeters; a quantum sensing technology capable of high efficiency and
outstanding resolution for low-energy X-rays
United European Gastroenterology (UEG) and European Society for Neurogastroenterology and Motility (ESNM) consensus on gastroparesis
Background: Gastroparesis is a condition characterized by epigastric symptoms and delayed gastric emptying (GE) rate in the absence of any mechanical obstruction. The condition is challenging in clinical practice by the lack of guidance concerning diagnosis and management of gastroparesis. Methods: A Delphi consensus was undertaken by 40 experts from 19 European countries who conducted a literature summary and voting process on 89 statements. Quality of evidence was evaluated using grading of recommendations assessment, development, and evaluation criteria. Consensus (defined as â„80% agreement) was reached for 25 statements. Results: The European consensus defined gastroparesis as the presence of symptoms associated with delayed GE in the absence of mechanical obstruction. Nausea and vomiting were identified as cardinal symptoms, with often coexisting postprandial distress syndrome symptoms of dyspepsia. The true epidemiology of gastroparesis is not known in detail, but diabetes, gastric surgery, certain neurological and connective tissue diseases, and the use of certain drugs recognized as risk factors. While the panel agreed that severely impaired gastric motor function is present in these patients, there was no consensus on underlying pathophysiology. The panel agreed that an upper endoscopy and a GE test are required for diagnosis. Only dietary therapy, dopamineâ2 antagonists and 5âHT4 receptor agonists were considered appropriate therapies, in addition to nutritional support in case of severe weight loss. No consensus was reached on the use of proton pump inhibitors, other classes of antiemetics or prokinetics, neuromodulators, complimentary, psychological, or more invasive therapies. Finally, there was consensus that gastroparesis adversely impacts on quality of life and healthcare costs and that the longâterm prognosis of gastroparesis depends on the cause. Conclusions and Inferences: A multinational group of European experts summarized the current state of consensus on definition, symptom characteristics, pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of gastroparesis
United European Gastroenterology (UEG) and European Society for Neurogastroenterology and Motility (ESNM) consensus on functional dyspepsia
BACKGROUND
Functional dyspepsia (FD) is one of the most common conditions in clinical practice. In spite of its prevalence, FD is associated with major uncertainties in terms of its definition, underlying pathophysiology, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis.
METHODS
A Delphi consensus was initiated with 41 experts from 22 European countries who conducted a literature summary and voting process on 87 statements. Quality of evidence was evaluated using the grading of recommendations, assessment, development, and evaluation (GRADE) criteria. Consensus (defined as >80% agreement) was reached for 36 statements.
RESULTS
The panel agreed with the definition in terms of its cardinal symptoms (early satiation, postprandial fullness, epigastric pain, and epigastric burning), its subdivision into epigastric pain syndrome and postprandial distress syndrome, and the presence of accessory symptoms (upper abdominal bloating, nausea, belching), and overlapping conditions. Also, well accepted are the female predominance of FD, its impact on quality of life and health costs, and acute gastrointestinal infections, and anxiety as risk factors. In terms of pathophysiological mechanisms, the consensus supports a role for impaired gastric accommodation, delayed gastric emptying, hypersensitivity to gastric distention, Helicobacter pylori infection, and altered central processing of signals from the gastroduodenal region. There is consensus that endoscopy is mandatory for establishing a firm diagnosis of FD, but that in primary care, patients without alarm symptoms or risk factors can be managed without endoscopy. There is consensus that H. pylori status should be determined in every patient with dyspeptic symptoms and H. pylori positive patients should receive eradication therapy. Also, proton pump inhibitor therapy is considered an effective therapy for FD, but no other treatment approach reached a consensus. The long-term prognosis and life expectancy are favorable.
CONCLUSIONS AND INFERENCES
A multinational group of European experts summarized the current state of consensus on the definition, diagnosis and management of FD
Characterization of a continuous muon source for the Muon-Induced X-ray Emission (MIXE) Technique
The toolbox for material characterization has never been richer than today.
Great progress with all kinds of particles and interaction methods provide
access to nearly all properties of an object under study. However, a
tomographic analysis of the subsurface region remains still a challenge today.
In this regard, the Muon-Induced X-ray Emission (MIXE) technique has seen
rebirth fueled by the availability of high intensity muon beams. We report here
a study conducted at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). It demonstrates that
the absence of any beam time-structure leads to low pile-up events and a high
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) with less than one hour acquisition time per sample
or data point. This performance creates the perspective to open this technique
to a wider audience for the routine investigation of non-destructive and
depth-sensitive elemental compositions, for example in rare and precious
samples. Using a hetero-structured sample of known elements and thicknesses, we
successfully detected the characteristic muonic X-rays, emitted during the
capture of a negative muon by an atom, and the gamma-rays resulting from the
nuclear capture of the muon, characterizing the capabilities of MIXE at PSI.
This sample emphasizes the quality of a continuous beam, and the exceptional
SNR at high rates. Such sensitivity will enable totally new statistically
intense aspects in the field of MIXE, e.g. elemental 3D-tomography and chemical
analysis. Therefore, we are currently advancing our proof-of-concept
experiments with the goal of creating a full fledged permanently operated user
station to make MIXE available to the wider scientific community as well as
industry
Methodologies for in vitro and in vivo evaluation of efficacy of antifungal and antibiofilm agents and surface coatings against fungal biofilms
KT acknowledges receipt of a mandate of Industrial Research Fund (IOFm/05/022). JB acknowledges funding from the European Research Council Advanced Award 3400867/RAPLODAPT and the Israel Science Foundation grant # 314/13 (www.isf.il). NG acknowledges the Wellcome Trust and MRC for funding. CD acknowledges funding from the Agence Nationale de Recherche (ANR-10-LABX-62-IBEID). CJN acknowledges funding from the National Institutes of Health R35GM124594 and R21AI125801. AW is supported by the Wellcome Trust Strategic Award (grant 097377), the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology (grant MR/N006364/1) at the University of Aberdeen MaCA: outside this study MaCA has received personal speakerâs honoraria the past five years from Astellas, Basilea, Gilead, MSD, Pfizer, T2Candida, and Novartis. She has received research grants and contract work paid to the Statens Serum Institute from Astellas, Basilea, Gilead, MSD, NovaBiotics, Pfizer, T2Biosystems, F2G, Cidara, and Amplyx. CAM acknowledges the Wellcome Trust and the MRC MR/N006364/1. PVD, TC and KT acknowledge the FWO research community: Biology and ecology of bacterial and fungal biofilms in humans (FWO WO.009.16N). AAB acknowledges the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft â CRC FungiNet.Peer reviewedPublisher PD
D5.3 Resilience assessment of current farming systems across the European Union
For improving sustainability and resilience of EU farming system, the current state needs to be
assessed, before being able to move on to future scenarios. Assessing sustainability and resilience
of farming systems is a multi-faceted research challenge in terms of the scientific domains and
scales of integration (farm, household, farming system level) that need to be covered. Hence, in
SURE-Farm, multiple approaches are used to evaluate current sustainability and resilience and its
underlying structures and drivers. To maintain consistency across the different approaches, all
approaches are connected to a resilience framework which was developed for the unique
purposes of SURE-Farm. The resilience framework follows five steps: 1) the farming system
(resilience of what?), 2) challenges (resilience to what?), 3) functions (resilience for what
purpose?), 4) resilience capacities, 5) resilience attributes (what enhances resilience?). The
framework was operationalized in 11 case studies across the EU.
Applied approaches differ in disciplinary orientation and the farming system process they focus
on. Three approaches focus on risk management: 1) a farm survey with a main focus on risk
management and risk management strategies, 2) interviews on farmersâ learning capacity and
networks of influence, and 3) Focus Groups on risk management. Two approaches address farm
demographics: 4) interviews on farm demographics, and 5) AgriPoliS Focus Group workshops on
structural change of farming systems from a (farm) demographics perspective. One approach
applied so far addresses governance: 6) the Resilience Assessment Tool that evaluates how
policies and legislation support resilience of farming systems. Two methods address agricultural
production and delivery of public and private goods: 7) the Framework of Participatory Impact
Assessment for sustainable and resilient farming systems (FoPIA-SURE-Farm), aiming to integrate
multiple perspectives at farming system level, and 8) the Ecosystem Services assessment that
evaluates the delivery of public and private goods. In a few case studies, additional methods were
applied. Specifically, in the Italian case study, additional statistical approaches were used to
increase the support for risk management options (Appendix A and Appendix B).
Results of the different methods were compared and synthesized per step of the resilience
framework. Synthesized results were used to determine the position of the farming system in the
adaptive cycle, i.e. in the exploitation, conservation, release, or reorganization phase. Dependent
on the current phase of the farming system, strategies for improving sustainability and resilience
were developed.
Results were synthesized around the three aspects characterizing the SURE-Farm framework, i.e.
(i) it studies resilience at the farming system level, (ii) considers three resilience capacities, and
(iii) assesses resilience in the context of the (changing) functions of the system.
(i) Many actors are part of the farming system. However, resilience-enhancing strategies are
mostly defined at the farm level. In each farming system multiple actors are considered to
be part of the system, such as consultants, neighbors, local selling networks and nature
organizations. The number of different farming system actors beyond the focal farmers
varies between 4 (in French beef and Italian hazelnut systems) and 14 (large-scale arable
systems in the UK). These large numbers of actors illustrate the relevance of looking at
farming system level rather than at farm level. It also suggests that discussions about
resilience and future strategies need to embrace all of these actors.
(ii) At system level there is a low perceived capacity to transform. Yet, most systems appear to
be at the start of a period in which (incremental) transformation is required. At system level,
the capacity to transform is perceived to be relatively low, except in the Romanian mixed
farming system. The latter may reflect a combination of ample room to grow and a relatively
stable environment (especially when compared to the past 30 to 50 years). The relatively
low capacity to transform in the majority of systems is not in line with the suggestion that
most systems are at the start of (incremental) transformation, or, at least, reached a
situation in which they can no longer grow. Further growth is only deemed possible in the
Belgium dairy, Italian hazelnut, Polish fruit and Romanian mixed farming systems.
(iii) System functions score well with regard to the delivery of high-quality and safe food but face
problems with quality of rural life and protecting biodiversity. Resilience capacities can only
be understood in the context of the functions to be delivered by a farming system. We find
that across all systems required functions are a mix of private and public goods. With regard
to the capacity to deliver private goods, all systems perform well with respect to high-quality
and safe food. Viability of farm income is regarded moderate or low in the livestock systems
in Belgium (dairy), France (beef) and Sweden (broilers), and the fruit farming system in
Poland. Across all functions, attention is especially needed for the delivery of public goods.
More specifically the quality of rural life and infrastructure are frequently classified as being
important, but currently performing bad. Despite the concerns about the delivery of public
goods, many future strategies still focus on improving the delivery of private goods.
Suggestions in the area of public goods include among others the implementation of
conservation farming in the UK arable system, improved water management in the Italian
hazelnut system, and introduction of technologies which reduce the use of herbicides in
Polish fruit systems. It is questionable whether these are sufficient to address the need to
improve the maintenance of natural resources, biodiversity and attractiveness of rural
areas. With regard to the changing of functions over time, we did not find evidence for this
in our farming systems
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