Algebraic relations over finite fields that preserve the endomorphism rings of CM jj-invariants

We characterise the integral affine plane curves over a finite field $k$ with the property that all but finitely many of their $\overline{k}$-points have coordinates that are $j$-invariants of elliptic curves with isomorphic endomorphism rings. This settles a finite field variant of the Andr\'e-Oort conjecture for $Y(1)^2_\mathbb{C}$, which is a theorem of Andr\'e. We use our result to solve the modular support problem for function fields of positive characteristic.Comment: 18 page

An E-mail Service in a Military Adolescent Medicine Clinic: will teens use it and what for?

The goal of this study was to determine utilization patterns of an Adolescent Medicine Clinic e-mail service. An e-mail service was offered to 6134 patients presenting for care to a military Adolescent Medicine Clinic in San Antonio, Texas over a 6-month period. Families had to complete an authorization form acknowledging that the e-mail service was not encrypted and was not to be used for emergent issues prior to use. 482 families signed up for the service. A total of 42 e-mails were received from 28 of these families. 75% of all e-mails were initiated by parents. The majority of e-mails were administrative issues including: medication refills, lab follow up, and referrals requests. In conclusion, the e-mail service was a low cost method to increase communication options for our patients that was not associated with a large increase in clinic workload because of low utilization rates, especially among younger adolescents.Keywords: Adolescents; E-mail; Internet; Electronic communication; Physicianpatient communicatio

Schrödinger’s worker: Are they positive or negative for SARS-CoV-2?

In these days of 2020, tests for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2, and their use in the context of health surveillance of workers, are becoming popular. Nevertheless, their sensitivity and specificity could vary on the basis of the type of test used and on the moment of infection of the subject tested. The aim of this viewpoint paper is to make employers, workers, occupational physicians, and public health specialists think about the limits of diagnostic tests currently available, and the possible implication related to the erroneous and incautious assignment of “immunity passports” or “risk-free certificates” to workers during screening campaigns in workplaces

Factors affecting antimicrobial activity of MUC7 12-mer, a human salivary mucin-derived peptide

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>MUC7 12-mer (RKSYKCLHKRCR), a cationic antimicrobial peptide derived from the human low-molecular-weight salivary mucin MUC7, possesses potent antimicrobial activity <it>in vitro</it>. In order to evaluate the potential therapeutic application of the MUC7 12-mer, we examined the effects of mono- and divalent cations, EDTA, pH, and temperature on its antimicrobial activity.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Minimal Inhibitory Concentrations (MICs) were determined using a liquid growth inhibition assay in 96-well microtiter plates. MUC7 12-mer was added at concentrations of 1.56–50 μM. MICs were determined at three endpoints: MIC-0, MIC-1, and MIC-2 (the lowest drug concentration showing 10%, 25% and 50% of growth, respectively). To examine the effect of salts or EDTA, a checkerboard microdilution technique was used. Fractional inhibitory concentration index (FICi) was calculated on the basis of MIC-0. The viability of microbial cells treated with MUC7 12-mer in the presence of sodium or potassium was also determined by killing assay or flow cytometry.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The MICs of MUC7 12-mer against organisms tested ranged from 6.25–50 μM. For<it> C. albicans</it>, antagonism (FICi 4.5) was observed for the combination of MUC7 12-mer and calcium; however, there was synergism (FICi 0.22) between MUC7 12-mer and EDTA, and the synergism was retained in the presence of calcium at its physiological concentration (1–2 mM). No antagonism but additivity or indifference (FICi 0.55–2.5) was observed for the combination of MUC7 12-mer and each K⁺, Na⁺, Mg²⁺, or Zn²⁺. MUC7 12-mer peptide (at 25 μM) also exerted killing activity in the presence of NaCl, (up to 25 mM for <it>C. albicans </it>and up to 150 mM for <it>E. coli</it>, a physiological concentration of sodium in the oral cavity and serum, respectively) and retained candidacidal activity in the presence of KCl (up to 40 mM). The peptide exhibited higher inhibitory activity against <it>C. albicans </it>at pH 7, 8, and 9 than at pH 5 and 6, and temperature up to 60°C did not affect the activity.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>MUC7 12-mer peptide is effective anticandidal agent at physiological concentrations of variety of ions in the oral cavity. These results suggest that, especially in combination with EDTA, it could potentially be applied as an alternative therapeutic agent for the treatment of human oral candidiasis.</p

Regionalization of ports as a strategic leverage to improve competitiveness. A study on central italy ports and related hinterland

Nowadays, the success of a maritime port does not depend anymore on its traditional intrinsic points of strength, such as the internal capacity, but also on its ability to effectively integrate the development of its hinterland into business relations and supply chains. Mediterranean ports can get competitive, if specific "regionalization" processes are launched and supported. Key point for this strategy is the hinterland involvement: logistics and transports integration, railways, realization and development of dryports, terminals, distribution centres. All these are core elements for this purpose. The overall focus has changed from port performances to performance of the entire supply chain in the port-hinterland relationship. This is what it is going to do the Port of Civitavecchia, the most important port in Lazio Region, would like to become the central point into commercial, industrial and infrastructural development of central Italy. The development of railway terminal and of regional road network for the developing of intermodal logistics chain, of the industrial port activities (shipbuilding sector and oil bunkering), of trade relations with Fiumicino Airport and with the roman agroindustrial sector, of logistics relations with the dryport of Orte and with the intermodal terminal (road-railway) of Pomezia Santa Palomba, are some of the activities planned and undertaken by the port for improving the regionalization of Civitavecchia. Aim of this paper is to show and underline how these regionalization processes can increase the development, and so benefit the entire regional hinterland and the competitiveness and attraction of the entire port system. A model to estimate the regionalization effect has been designed by the authors and implemented to make a comparison analysis between Civitavecchia and competing ports. © 2021 Georg Thieme Verlag. All rights reserved

Stress among medical students: Factor structure of the University Stress Scale among Italian students

Objectives The main purpose of the current study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the University Stress Scale (USS) among Italian medical students. Design, setting and participants A cross-sectional observational study based on data from an online cross-sectional survey from 11 to 23 December 2018. A total of 1858 Italian medical students participated in the study. Outcome measures We measured perceived stress among medical students using the USS, the Effort-Reward Imbalance Student Questionnaire (ERI-SQ) and the Kessler-10 (K10). Results Results showed that a bifactor-Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling solution provided excellent levels of fit to the data. Our results suggest that the modified version of 19 items of the Italian version of the USS does not have a simple unidimensional structure. Overall, an inspection of ancillary indices (omega indices, ECV and percentage of uncontaminated correlations) revealed that these were too low to suggest the use of the USS as a composite measure of university stress. We tested an alternative unidimensional short form (eight items; USS-S) that assessed all the five sources of stress. This version provided a good fit to the data. Evidence of convergent validity of the USS-S was observed by analysing the correlations between the USS and ERI-SQ (ranging from-0.34 to 0.37, all p&lt;0.01). Finally, based on the clinical cut-off recommended on the K10, results from receiver operating characteristic showed that considering the clinical cut-off of the USS is 7.5 and that 59.70% of medical students reported stress levels in the clinical range. Conclusion Finally, our results showed a lack of support for using the USS to measure a general university stress factor, as the general USS factor accounted for little variance in our sample. In this sense, stress scores among Italian students can be better assessed by the use of the USS-S

Victimization Prior to Jail: The Effect of Physical and/or Sexual Victimization on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder in a Population of Jailed Inmates

Previous research shows a link between abuse histories and negative outcomes, including a relationship between abuse victimization and mental illness and/or substance use disorder and between such victimization and criminal behavior. The relationship between abuse and offending or reoffending is likely indirect, working by way of mental illness and/or substance use disorder. However, the effects of these abuse experiences prior to incarceration as well as the impact of abuse perpetrator type and abuse timing on mental health and substance use outcomes have been underexplored in jail populations. The current analysis addresses this gap. From February 21st, 2017 to September 12th, 2017, people admitted to jail were screened by intake staff, and these assessments supplemented administrative admissions data. Assessments included 79 questions developed by jail administrators and a research team of faculty research partners. A total of 4,713 individuals were admitted to the jail, including people detained for pretrial purposes and those convicted and sentenced to jail. The majority of the population (72.3%) reported no history of abuse, but 17.5% indicated a history of physical abuse, 3.2% a history of sexual abuse, and 10.0% a history of polyvictimization (both physical and sexual abuse). Further, 43.6% of jailed individuals had a high level of an internalizing disorder while 19.4% had a high level of an externalizing disorder. Lastly, 28.5% of the population had a substance use disorder. We found evidence to suggest that a history of physical abuse has similar effects for men and women on the likelihood of internalizing disorders but that a history of sexual abuse had a larger influence on women. Polyvictimization also predicted internalizing disorders for men and women. Similarly, a history of physical abuse resulted in greater odds of externalizing disorders across sex, but a history of sexual abuse significantly predicted externalizing disorders for women only. In contrast, polyvictimization predicted greater odds of externalizing disorders for men. A history of victimization was largely unrelated to substance use disorder with the exception of polyvictimization reported by men. Regarding the perpetrator of abuse, the strongest effect was found for perpetration by a non-stranger, resulting in greater odds of internalizing disorders (all abuse types) and externalizing disorders (only physical abuse and polyvictimization). A history of victimization by either a non-stranger or stranger was largely unrelated to substance use disorder. For abuse timing, the strongest effects were found for abuse experienced prior to age 18 for internalizing and externalizing disorders. Timing of abuse was largely unrelated to substance use disorder as an outcome. Finally, across analyses, substance use disorder was significantly related to internalizing and externalizing disorders and vice versa. Taken together, we found that a history of physical and/or sexual abuse were significantly associated with mental health outcomes across men and women in jail whereas past research has focused primarily on the link between abuse, mental illness, substance use, and offending/reoffending amongst women. However, a history of abuse was largely unassociated with substance use disorder as an outcome, which is counter to past research in justice-involved youth and people incarcerated in prisons. Instead, our findings suggest that, rather than being an intervening variable between abuse histories and criminal behavior, which appears to be the case for internalizing and externalizing disorders in our study, substance use disorder may not act as an indirect pathway between abuse and offending but may still affect criminal behavior by way of mental illness or vice versa

GADA titer-related risk for organ-specific autoimmunity in LADA subjects subdivided according to gender (NIRAD study 6).

CONTEXT: Latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) includes a heterogeneous population wherein, based on glutamic acid decarboxylase antibody (GADA) titer, different subgroups of subjects can be identified. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to evaluate GADA titer-related risk for β-cell and other organ-specific autoimmunity in LADA subjects. METHODS: Adult-onset autoimmune diabetes subjects (n=236) and type 2 diabetes (T2DM) subjects (n=450) were characterized for protein tyrosine phosphatase (IA-2IC and IA-2(256-760)), zinc transporter 8 (ZnT8), thyroid peroxidase, (TPO), steroid 21-hydroxylase (21-OH), tissue transglutaminase (tTG), and antiparietal cell (APC) antibodies. RESULTS: High GADA titer compared to low GADA titer showed a significantly higher prevalence of IA-2IC, IA-2(256-760), ZnT8, TPO, and APC antibodies (P≤0.04 for all comparison). 21-OH antibodies were detected in 3.4% of high GADA titer. A significant decreasing trend was observed from high GADA to low GADA and to T2DM subjects for IA-2(256-760), ZnT8, TPO, tTG, and APC antibodies (P for trend≤0.001). TPO was the only antibody showing a different prevalence between gender; low GADA titer and T2DM female patients had a higher frequency of TPO antibody compared to males (P=0.0004 and P=0.0006, respectively), where the presence of high GADA titer conferred an odds ratio of 8.6 for TPO compared to low GADA titer. After subdividing high and low GADA titer subjects according to the number of antibodies, we observed that 73.3% of high GADA titer subjects were positive for at least one or more antibodies, compared to 38.3% of low GADA titer (P<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: In LADA subjects, high GADA titer was associated with a profile of more severe autoimmunity and, in male gender, specifically predisposed to thyroid autoimmunity. A regular screening for other antibodies is recommended in LADA patients according to GADA titer and gender