Efficacy and Safety of COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma in Hospitalized Patients—An Open-Label Phase II Clinical Trial

Background: COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) is an important antiviral option for selected patients with COVID-19. Materials and Methods: In this open-label, phase 2, clinical trial conducted from 30 April 2020 till 10 May 2021 in the Republic of North Macedonia, we evaluated the efficacy and safety of CCP in hospitalized patients. Treatment was with a single unit of CCP having an anti-RBD IgG concentration higher than 5 AU/mL. Results: There were 189 patients that completed the study, of which 65 (34.4%) had WHO 8-point clinical progression scale score of 3 (requiring hospital care but not oxygen support), 65 (34.4%) had a score of 4 (hospitalized and requiring supplemental oxygen by mask or nasal prongs), and 59 (31.2%) had a score of 5 (hospitalized and requiring supplemental oxygen by non-invasive ventilation or high-flow oxygen). Mean age was 57 years (range 22–94), 78.5% were males, 80.4% had elevated body mass index, and 70.9% had comorbidity. Following CCP transfusion, we observed clinical improvement with increase rates in oxygenation-free days of 32.3% and 58.5% at 24 h and seven days after CCP transfusion, a decline in WHO scores, and reduced progression to severe disease (only one patient was admitted to ICU after CCP transfusion). Mortality in the entire cohort was 11.6% (22/189). We recorded 0% mortality in WHO score 3 (0/65) and in patients that received CCP transfusion in the first seven days of disease, 4.6% mortality in WHO score 4 (3/65), and 30.5% mortality in WHO score 5 (18/59). Mortality correlated with WHO score (Chi-square 19.3, p < 0.001) and with stay in the ICU (Chi-square 55.526, p ≤ 0.001). No severe adverse events were reported. Conclusions: This study showed that early administration of CCP to patients with moderate disease was a safe and potentially effective treatment for hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04397523)

The bear in Eurasian plant names: Motivations and models

Ethnolinguistic studies are important for understanding an ethnic group's ideas on the world, expressed in its language. Comparing corresponding aspects of such knowledge might help clarify problems of origin for certain concepts and words, e.g. whether they form common heritage, have an independent origin, are borrowings, or calques. The current study was conducted on the material in Slavonic, Baltic, Germanic, Romance, Finno-Ugrian, Turkic and Albanian languages. The bear was chosen as being a large, dangerous animal, important in traditional culture, whose name is widely reflected in folk plant names. The phytonyms for comparison were mostly obtained from dictionaries and other publications, and supplemented with data from databases, the co-authors' field data, and archival sources (dialect and folklore materials). More than 1200 phytonym use records (combinations of a local name and a meaning) for 364 plant and fungal taxa were recorded to help find out the reasoning behind bear-nomination in various languages, as well as differences and similarities between the patterns among them. Among the most common taxa with bear-related phytonyms were Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (L.) Spreng., Heracleum sphondylium L., Acanthus mollis L., and Allium ursinum L., with Latin loan translation contributing a high proportion of the phytonyms. Some plants have many and various bear-related phytonyms, while others have only one or two bear names. Features like form and/or surface generated the richest pool of names, while such features as colour seemed to provoke rather few associations with bears. The unevenness of bear phytonyms in the chosen languages was not related to the size of the language nor the present occurence of the Brown Bear in the region. However, this may, at least to certain extent, be related to the amount of the historical ethnolinguistic research done on the selected languages

Evaluation of the profitability of Technical Analysis Application in the FTSE-20 index of the Athens Exchange

83 σ.Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο--Μεταπτυχιακή Εργασία. Διεπιστημονικό-Διατμηματικό Πρόγραμμα Μεταπτυχιακών Σπουδών (Δ.Π.Μ.Σ.) “Μαθηματική Προτυποποίηση σε Σύγχρονες Τεχνολογίες στην Οικονομία”Η παρούσα εργασία ερευνά την αποδοτικότητα των τεχνικών κανόνων αξιολογώντας τη δυ-νατότητα τους να αποκομίζουν υπερκέρδη σε σχέση με την απόδοση της απλής στρατηγικής διακράτησης. Θα χρησιμοποιηθούν οι κανόνες του Κινητού Μέσου Όρου διαφόρων περιό-δων, Κινητού Μέσου Όρου με ζώνες διαφόρων περιόδων και RSI Oscillator. Η εφαρμογή θα γίνει στις ημερήσιες τιμές του δείκτη των 20 μετοχών με την μεγαλύτερη κεφαλαιοποίη-ση, του FTSE-20 του Χρηματιστηρίου Αθηνών για την οκταετή περίοδο 2004-2012. Τα αποτελέσματα είναι ενθαρρυντικά για την αποδοτικότητα κυρίως του κινητού μέσου όρου με μεγάλη διάρκεια και πτωτικές αγορές, ενώ αποθαρρυντικά για τη αποδοτικότητα του ταλαν-τωτή RSI. Η επενδυτικές στρατηγικές ενδείκνυνται για μικρές επενδυτικές περιόδους δεδο-μένου ότι μακροχρόνια τα υπερκέρδη εξανεμίζονται. H στατιστική σημαντικότητα των απο-τελεσμάτων ελέγχεται με τις στατιστικές t, δεχόμενη την πιθανότητα λάθους λόγω μη κανο-νικότητας των δεδομένων.This paper investigates the profitability of technical rules by evaluating their ability to earn excessive profits in relation to the performance of simple retention strategy. We use the rules of the Moving Average of various periods, Moving Average with bands of vari-ous periods and RSI Oscillator. The implementation will be to the daily values of the in-dex of 20 shares with the largest capitalization, the FTSE-20 of the Athens Stock Ex-change, for the eight-year period 2004-2012. The results are encouraging, particularly, for the effectiveness of simple moving average both in long and falling markets, while dis-couraging for the efficiency of the oscillator RSI. The investment strategies suited for short investment periods as long the superprofits evaporate as the time passes. The sta-tistical significance of results is controlled by the statistical t, accepting the possibility of error due to non-normality of the data. Key words: Technical Analysis, Fundamental Analysis, Moving Average, Bands, Oscillator, Buy and Hold StrategyΓεωργία Σ. Δεμίρ

Abdominal setae and midgut bacteria of the mudshrimp Pestarella tyrrhena

We investigated the diversity of the bacterial 16S rRNA genes occurring on the abdominal setal tufts and in the emptied midgut of the marine mudshrimp Pestarella tyrrhena (Decapoda: Thalassinidea). There were no dominant phylotypes on the setal tufts. The majority of the phylotypes belonged to the phylum Bacteroidetes, frequently occurring in the water column. The rest of the phylotypes were related to anoxygenic photosynthetic α-Proteobacteria and to Actinobacteria. This bacterial profile seems more of a marine assemblage rather than a specific one suggesting that no specific microbial process can be inferred on the setal tufts. In the emptied midgut, 64 clones were attributed to 16 unique phylotypes with the majority (40.6%) belonging to the γ-Proteobacteria, specifically to the genus Vibrio, a marine group with known symbionts of decapods. The next most abundant group was the e{open}-Proteobacteria (28.1%), with members as likely symbionts related to the processes involving redox reactions occurring in the midgut. In addition, phylotypes related to the Spirochaetes (10.9%) were also present, with relatives capable of symbiosis conducting a nitrite associated metabolism. Entomoplasmatales, Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria related phylotypes were also found. These results indicate a specific bacterial community dominated by putative symbiotic Bacteria within the P. tyrrhena&apos;s midgut. © Versita Warsaw and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Neoplastic pericarditis as the initial manifestation of a papillary thyroid carcinoma

Neoplastic pericarditis represents approximately 5%-7% of the cases with acute pericarditis and is rarely the initial manifestation of malignancy. The most common cause is lung cancer, followed by breast cancer, lymphomas, leukemia, and esophageal cancer. Neoplastic pericardial disease is extremely rare in thyroid cancer, especially as the first manifestation. Here, we present a papillary thyroid carcinoma that was manifested with pericarditis and cardiac tamponade in a 49-year-old female. © Informa Healthcare

Nivolumab-induced lichenoid granulomatous stomatitiin a patient with advanced melanoma: A case report

Lichenoid granulomatous reactions (LGR) are granulomatous inflammations of the skin and oral mucosa, also sharing features of lichenoid lesions. Thus, the present study refers to lichenoid granulomatous dermatitis (LGD) and lichenoid granulomatous stomatitis (LGS). LGR is a condition that can be triggered by drugs, diseases or environmental causes. In the present case study, anti-PD1 (nivolumab) medication had a detrimental effect on the oral mucosa, which clinicaly and histologicaly proved to be LGS. Checkpoint inhibitors consitute a cornerstone in the current treatment of several types of cancer, of which cutaneous melanoma is the best example. Oral lichenoid responses following anti-PD-1 therapy have been recorded in few case reports and small case series. To the best of our knowledhe, this is the first case of LGS being reported as a side effect of immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment. © 2022, Spandidos Publications. All rights reserved

The marine polysaccharide ulvan confers potent osteoinductive capacity to pcl‐based scaffolds for bone tissue engineering applications

Hybrid composites of synthetic and natural polymers represent materials of choice for bone tissue engineering. Ulvan, a biologically active marine sulfated polysaccharide, is attracting great interest in the development of novel biomedical scaffolds due to recent reports on its osteoinductive properties. Herein, a series of hybrid polycaprolactone scaffolds containing ulvan either alone or in blends with κ‐carrageenan and chondroitin sulfate was prepared and characterized. The impact of the preparation methodology and the polysaccharide composition on their morphology, as well as on their mechanical, thermal, water uptake and porosity properties was determined, while their osteoinductive potential was investigated through the evaluation of cell adhesion, viability, and osteogenic differentiation of seeded human adipose‐derived mesenchymal stem cells. The results verified the osteoinductive ability of ulvan, showing that its incorporation into the polycaprolactone matrix efficiently promoted cell attachment and viability, thus confirming its potential in the development of biomedical scaffolds for bone tissue regeneration applications. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland