Trichinella spiralis natural infection in Otaria flasvecens from Patagonia, Argentina

Fil: Pasqualetti, Mariana I. Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, Cátedra de Parasitología y Enfermedades Parasitarias; ArgentinaFil: Pasqualetti, Mariana I. Instituto de Investigaciones en Producción Animal (INPA); ArgentinaFil: Pasqualetti, Mariana I. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Fariña, Fernando A. Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, Cátedra de Parasitología y Enfermedades Parasitarias; ArgentinaFil: Fariña, Fernando A. Instituto de Investigaciones en Producción Animal (INPA); ArgentinaFil: Fariña, Fernando A. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Krivokapich, Silvio J. Administración Nacional de Laboratorios e Institutos de Salud "Dr. Carlos G. Malbrán"; ArgentinaFil: Gatti, Genoveva M. Administración Nacional de Laboratorios e Institutos de Salud "Dr. Carlos G. Malbrán"; ArgentinaFil: Daneri, Gustavo A. Laboratorio de Sistemática, Anatomía y Bioecología de Mamíferos Marinos, Division Mastozoología, Museo Argentino de CienciasNaturales,“Bernardino Rivadavia”; ArgentinaFil: Varela, Esperanza A. Laboratorio de Sistemática, Anatomía y Bioecología de Mamíferos Marinos, Division Mastozoología, Museo Argentino de CienciasNaturales,“Bernardino Rivadavia”; ArgentinaFil: Lucero, Sergio. Laboratorio de Sistemática, Anatomía y Bioecología de Mamíferos Marinos, Division Mastozoología, Museo Argentino de CienciasNaturales,“Bernardino Rivadavia”; ArgentinaFil: Ercole, Mariano E. Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias,Cátedra de Parasitología y Enfermedades Parasitarias; ArgentinaFil: Bessi, Clara. Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias,Cátedra de Parasitología y Enfermedades Parasitarias; ArgentinaFil: Bessi, Clara. Instituto de Investigaciones en Producción Animal (INPA); ArgentinaFil: Bessi, Clara. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Winter, Marina. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Sede Atlántica; ArgentinaFil: Winter, Marina. Centro de Investigación y Transferencia Río Negro; ArgentinaFil: Ribicich, Mabel M. Instituto de Investigaciones en Producción Animal (INPA); ArgentinaFil: Ribicich, Mabel M. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Cátedra de Parasitología y Enfermedades Parasitarias; ArgentinaFil: Ribicich, Mabel M. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaIn Argentina trichinellosis is an endemic disease representing an important risk for human health due to its high rates of morbidity, mainly transmitted by the consumption of raw or undercooked pork. Nevertheless, the discovery of new Trichinella species have led to a change in the study of the epidemiology of the disease with the addition of new sources of infection. Moreover, Trichinella infection has been detected in a wide range of marine mammals around the world. Until the present time, Trichinella spp. infection has not been detected in marine mammals of South America. Four South American sea lions were found dead in the rookeries of Caleta de los Loros (Lat. 41° 00′ S; 64° 12′ W; n = 1), Promontorio Belén (Lat. 41° 09′ S; Long. 63° 48′ O; n = 1) and Punta Bermeja (Lat. 41° 09′ S; Long. 63° 09′ O; n = 2) in Rio Negro, Argentina. Muscle samples were taken from the tongue and diaphragm and were stored at 4 °C until examination at the Parasitology Laboratory of the Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, Universidad de Buenos Aires. The total muscle samples from each animal were analyzed by artificial digestión. Identification at the species level was made by nested multiplex chain reaction (nested multiplex PCR) based on nuclear ribosomal DNA sequences, using six pair of primers. Trichinella spp. larvae were found in one of the four South American sea lions. Based on their morphology, the recovered larvae were suggestive of Trichinella spp. Trichinella larvae generated a fragment of 173 bp corresponding to T. spiralis expansion segment V (ESV) region of the ribosomal DNA. This is the first report of a Trichinella species infecting marine mammals from South America. The inclusion of Otaria flavescens in the wide range of Trichinella hosts adds new questions to the epidemiology of Trichinella in marine animals. We thank the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable (SAyDS) of Río Negro Province for giving us permission to get sample from the rookeries. This work was supported by Universidad de Buenos Aires, Secretaria de Ciencia y Técnica Subsidio UBACyT20020130100336BA and Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología, FONCyT Subsidio PICT-2015-235

Twitter-based analysis of the dynamics of collective attention to political parties

Large-scale data from social media have a significant potential to describe complex phenomena in real world and to anticipate collective behaviors such as information spreading and social trends. One specific case of study is represented by the collective attention to the action of political parties. Not surprisingly, researchers and stakeholders tried to correlate parties' presence on social media with their performances in elections. Despite the many efforts, results are still inconclusive since this kind of data is often very noisy and significant signals could be covered by (largely unknown) statistical fluctuations. In this paper we consider the number of tweets (tweet volume) of a party as a proxy of collective attention to the party, identify the dynamics of the volume, and show that this quantity has some information on the elections outcome. We find that the distribution of the tweet volume for each party follows a log-normal distribution with a positive autocorrelation of the volume over short terms, which indicates the volume has large fluctuations of the log-normal distribution yet with a short-term tendency. Furthermore, by measuring the ratio of two consecutive daily tweet volumes, we find that the evolution of the daily volume of a party can be described by means of a geometric Brownian motion (i.e., the logarithm of the volume moves randomly with a trend). Finally, we determine the optimal period of averaging tweet volume for reducing fluctuations and extracting short-term tendencies. We conclude that the tweet volume is a good indicator of parties' success in the elections when considered over an optimal time window. Our study identifies the statistical nature of collective attention to political issues and sheds light on how to model the dynamics of collective attention in social media.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables. Published in PLoS ON

Debunking in a world of tribes

Social media aggregate people around common interests eliciting collective framing of narratives and worldviews. However, in such a disintermediated environment misinformation is pervasive and attempts to debunk are often undertaken to contrast this trend. In this work, we examine the effectiveness of debunking on Facebook through a quantitative analysis of 54 million users over a time span of five years (Jan 2010, Dec 2014). In particular, we compare how users usually consuming proven (scientific) and unsubstantiated (conspiracy-like) information on Facebook US interact with specific debunking posts. Our findings confirm the existence of echo chambers where users interact primarily with either conspiracy-like or scientific pages. However, both groups interact similarly with the information within their echo chamber. Then, we measure how users from both echo chambers interacted with 50,220 debunking posts accounting for both users consumption patterns and the sentiment expressed in their comments. Sentiment analysis reveals a dominant negativity in the comments to debunking posts. Furthermore, such posts remain mainly confined to the scientific echo chamber. Only few conspiracy users engage with corrections and their liking and commenting rates on conspiracy posts increases after the interaction

International study on inter-reader variability for circulating tumor cells in breast cancer

Introduction: Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have been studied in breast cancer with the CellSearch® system. Given the low CTC counts in non-metastatic breast cancer, it is important to evaluate the inter-reader agreement.Methods: CellSearch® images (N = 272) of either CTCs or white blood cells or artifacts from 109 non-metastatic (M0) and 22 metastatic (M1) breast cancer patients from reported studies were sent to 22 readers from 15 academic laboratories and 8 readers from two Veridex laboratories. Each image was scored as No CTC vs CTC HER2- vs CTC HER2+. The 8 Veridex readers were summarized to a Veridex Consensus (VC) to compare each academic reader using % agreement and kappa (κ) statistics. Agreement was compared according to disease stage and CTC counts using the Wilcoxon signed rank test.Results: For CTC definition (No CTC vs CTC), the median agreement between academic readers and VC was 92% (range 69 to 97%) with a median κ of 0.83 (range 0.37 to 0.93). Lower agreement was observed in images from M0 (median 91%, range 70 to 96%) compared to M1 (median 98%, range 64 to 100%) patients (P < 0.001) and from M0 and <3CTCs (median 87%, range 66 to 95%) compared to M0 and ≥3CTCs samples (median 95%, range 77 to 99%), (P < 0.001). For CTC HER2 expression (HER2- vs HER2+), the median agreement was 87% (range 51 to 95%) with a median κ of 0.74 (range 0.25 to 0.90).Conclusions: The inter-reader agreement for CTC definition was high. Reduced agreement was observed in M0 patients with low CTC counts. Continuous training and independent image review are required

Genome-wide analyses reveal a potential role for the <em>MAPT</em>, <em>MOBP</em>, and <em>APOE </em>loci in sporadic frontotemporal dementia

\ua9 2024 The Author(s)Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is the second most common cause of early-onset dementia after Alzheimer disease (AD). Efforts in the field mainly focus on familial forms of disease (fFTDs), while studies of the genetic etiology of sporadic FTD (sFTD) have been less common. In the current work, we analyzed 4,685 sFTD cases and 15,308 controls looking for common genetic determinants for sFTD. We found a cluster of variants at the MAPT (rs199443; p = 2.5 7 10−12, OR = 1.27) and APOE (rs6857; p = 1.31 7 10−12, OR = 1.27) loci and a candidate locus on chromosome 3 (rs1009966; p = 2.41 7 10−8, OR = 1.16) in the intergenic region between RPSA and MOBP, contributing to increased risk for sFTD through effects on expression and/or splicing in brain cortex of functionally relevant in-cis genes at the MAPT and RPSA-MOBP loci. The association with the MAPT (H1c clade) and RPSA-MOBP loci may suggest common genetic pleiotropy across FTD and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) (MAPT and RPSA-MOBP loci) and across FTD, AD, Parkinson disease (PD), and cortico-basal degeneration (CBD) (MAPT locus). Our data also suggest population specificity of the risk signals, with MAPT and APOE loci associations mainly driven by Central/Nordic and Mediterranean Europeans, respectively. This study lays the foundations for future work aimed at further characterizing population-specific features of potential FTD-discriminant APOE haplotype(s) and the functional involvement and contribution of the MAPT H1c haplotype and RPSA-MOBP loci to pathogenesis of sporadic forms of FTD in brain cortex

Comparison of clinical rating scales in genetic frontotemporal dementia within the GENFI cohort

BACKGROUND: Therapeutic trials are now underway in genetic forms of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) but clinical outcome measures are limited. The two most commonly used measures, the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR)+National Alzheimer’s Disease Coordinating Center (NACC) Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (FTLD) and the FTD Rating Scale (FRS), have yet to be compared in detail in the genetic forms of FTD. METHODS: The CDR+NACC FTLD and FRS were assessed cross-sectionally in 725 consecutively recruited participants from the Genetic FTD Initiative: 457 mutation carriers (77 microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT), 187 GRN, 193 C9orf72) and 268 family members without mutations (non-carrier control group). 231 mutation carriers (51 MAPT, 92 GRN, 88 C9orf72) and 145 non-carriers had available longitudinal data at a follow-up time point. RESULTS: Cross-sectionally, the mean FRS score was lower in all genetic groups compared with controls: GRN mutation carriers mean 83.4 (SD 27.0), MAPT mutation carriers 78.2 (28.8), C9orf72 mutation carriers 71.0 (34.0), controls 96.2 (7.7), p<0.001 for all comparisons, while the mean CDR+NACC FTLD Sum of Boxes was significantly higher in all genetic groups: GRN mutation carriers mean 2.6 (5.2), MAPT mutation carriers 3.2 (5.6), C9orf72 mutation carriers 4.2 (6.2), controls 0.2 (0.6), p<0.001 for all comparisons. Mean FRS score decreased and CDR+NACC FTLD Sum of Boxes increased with increasing disease severity within each individual genetic group. FRS and CDR+NACC FTLD Sum of Boxes scores were strongly negatively correlated across all mutation carriers (r_{s} =−0.77, p<0.001) and within each genetic group (r_{s} =−0.67 to −0.81, p<0.001 in each group). Nonetheless, discrepancies in disease staging were seen between the scales, and with each scale and clinician-judged symptomatic status. Longitudinally, annualised change in both FRS and CDR+NACC FTLD Sum of Boxes scores initially increased with disease severity level before decreasing in those with the most severe disease: controls −0.1 (6.0) for FRS, −0.1 (0.4) for CDR+NACC FTLD Sum of Boxes, asymptomatic mutation carriers −0.5 (8.2), 0.2 (0.9), prodromal disease −2.3 (9.9), 0.6 (2.7), mild disease −10.2 (18.6), 3.0 (4.1), moderate disease −9.6 (16.6), 4.4 (4.0), severe disease −2.7 (8.3), 1.7 (3.3). Sample sizes were calculated for a trial of prodromal mutation carriers: over 180 participants per arm would be needed to detect a moderate sized effect (30%) for both outcome measures, with sample sizes lower for the FRS. CONCLUSIONS: Both the FRS and CDR+NACC FTLD measure disease severity in genetic FTD mutation carriers throughout the timeline of their disease, although the FRS may be preferable as an outcome measure. However, neither address a number of key symptoms in the FTD spectrum, for example, motor and neuropsychiatric deficits, which future scales will need to incorporate

Behavioral and psychological effects of coronavirus disease-19 quarantine in patients with dementia

Background: In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic due to the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and several governments planned a national quarantine in order to control the virus spread. Acute psychological effects of quarantine in frail elderly subjects with special needs, such as patients with dementia, have been poorly investigated. The aim of this study was to assess modifications of neuropsychiatric symptoms during quarantine in patients with dementia and their caregivers. Methods: This is a sub-study of a multicenter nation-wide survey. A structured telephone interview was delivered to family caregivers of patients with diagnosis of Alzheimer disease (AD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and vascular dementia (VD), followed regularly at 87 Italian memory clinics. Variations in behavioral and psychological symptoms (BPSD) were collected after 1 month since quarantine declaration and associations with disease type, severity, gender, and caregiver\u2019s stress burden were analyzed. Results: A total of 4,913 caregivers participated in the survey. Increased BPSD was reported in 59.6% of patients as worsening of preexisting symptoms (51.9%) or as new onset (26%), and requested drug modifications in 27.6% of these cases. Irritability, apathy, agitation, and anxiety were the most frequently reported worsening symptoms and sleep disorder and irritability the most frequent new symptoms. Profile of BPSD varied according to dementia type, disease severity, and patients\u2019 gender. Anxiety and depression were associated with a diagnosis of AD (OR 1.35, CI: 1.12\u20131.62), mild to moderate disease severity and female gender. DLB was significantly associated with a higher risk of worsening hallucinations (OR 5.29, CI 3.66\u20137.64) and sleep disorder (OR 1.69, CI 1.25\u20132.29), FTD with wandering (OR 1.62, CI 1.12\u20132.35), and change of appetite (OR 1.52, CI 1.03\u20132.25). Stress-related symptoms were experienced by two-thirds of caregivers and were associated with increased patients\u2019 neuropsychiatric burden (p&lt;0.0001). Conclusion: Quarantine induces a rapid increase of BPSD in approximately 60% of patients and stress-related symptoms in two-thirds of caregivers. Health services need to plan a post-pandemic strategy in order to address these emerging needs