What Can We Do to Improve Child Health in Southern Italy?

Southern Italy has one of the highest rates of poverty in Europe, and children's health status in this region is alarming. Bonati and Campi outline the crucial policies that would address this crisis

Hepatitis B Surface Antigen Seropositive Men in Serodiscordant Couples: Effects on the Assisted Reproductive Outcomes

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Functional single-cell analysis of T-cell activation by supported lipid bilayer-tethered ligands on arrays of nanowells

Supported lipid bilayers are an important biomolecular tool for characterizing immunological synapses. Immobilized bilayers presenting tethered ligands on planar substrates have yielded both spatio-temporal and structural insights into how T cell receptors (TCRs) reorganize during the initial formation of synapses upon recognition of peptide antigens bound to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules. The prototypical configuration of these assays, however, limits the extent to which the kinetics and structure of the supramolecular activation clusters of the synapse (that occur in seconds or minutes) can be related to subsequent complex cellular responses, such as cytokine secretion and proliferation, occurring over hours to days. Here we describe a new method that allows correlative measures of both attributes with single-cell resolution by using immobilized lipid bilayers and tethered ligands on the surface of dense arrays of subnanoliter wells. This modification allows each nanowell to function as an artificial antigen-presenting cell (APC), and the synapses formed upon contact can be imaged by fluorescence microscopy. We show that the lipid bilayers remain stable and mobile on the surface of the PDMS, and that modifying the ligands tethered to the bilayer alters the structure of the resulting synapses in expected ways. Finally, we demonstrate that this approach allows the subsequent characterization of secreted cytokines from the activated human T cell clones by microengraving in both antigen- and pan-specific manners. This new technique should allow detailed investigations on how biophysical and structural aspects of the synapse influence the activation of individual T cells and their complex functional responses.National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (U.S.) (5P01AI045757)National Cancer Institute (U.S.) (Cancer Center Support (Core) Grant P30-CA14051

Can we still do something-and what?-for a seemingly missing syndrome?

Abstract Background Although several modifiable risk factors have been identified, and prone and side sleep positions were identified as preventing sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), the epidemiology of sudden unexpected deaths in infancy (SUDI), which includes SIDS, has not unchanged in over a decade. What can be done? Methods Italian infant mortality rates were analysed between 1996 and 2015. Results Between 1996 and 2015 in Italy 1152 SUDI deaths were reported in infants less than one year old. SUDI decreased substantially from 18 in 1996 to 10.2 deaths per hundred live births in 2015 (− 43%), the contribution was the change in the SIDS rate from 11.3 to 4.1 (− 64%). However, since 1004 main and SIDS rates have not changed. Conclusion Interventions that support safe sleep must be maintained, but research is still needed since although these dramatic deaths have been reduced their causes remain unknown. The challenge is now to shift their trend which has been constant for too long

The Different Regions of Italy

<p>The Different Regions of Italy</p

Additional file 4 of European birth cohorts: a consideration of what they have addressed so far

Additional file 4