Mandatory vaccinations in European countries, undocumented information, false news and the impact on vaccination uptake: the position of the Italian pediatric society.

BACKGROUND: High rates of vaccination coverage are important in preventing infectious diseases. Enforcing mandatory vaccinations is one of the strategies that some Countries adopted to protect the community when vaccination coverage is not satisfactory. In Italy, in 2017 vaccination against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, poliovirus, Haemophilus influenzae type b, measles, mumps, rubella and varicella became compulsory in childhood. In order to contrast vaccination policies, anti-vaccination campaigns contribute to the spread of fake news. Among them, there is the false information that Italy is the only one country with mandatory vaccination policy. Aim of our study is confronting vaccination policies in children under 18 months against among different European countries for the following vaccines: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, poliovirus, Haemophilus influenzae type b, measles, mumps, rubella and varicella. METHODS: Information on policies of mandatory or recommended vaccinations of the European Countries were gathered by ECDC and compared to the Italian one. RESULTS: European Countries recommend or contemplate compulsory vaccines. Among them, eleven Countries (35.4%) have mandatory vaccinations for at least one out of diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, poliovirus, Haemophilus influenzae type b, measles, mumps, rubella and varicella vaccine. CONCLUSION: Not only in Italy, vaccination against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, poliovirus, Haemophilus influenzae type b, measles, mumps, rubella and varicella is mandatory in children under 18 months. Other European countries adopted compulsory policies in order to prevent the spread of infectious diseases and to protect the community

Media devices in pre-school children: the recommendations of the Italian pediatric society

BACKGROUND: Young children are too often exposed to mobile devices (MD) and most of them had their own device. The adverse effects of a early and prolonged exposure to digital technology on pre-school children has been described by several studies. Aim of the study is to analyze the consequences of MD exposure in pre-school children. METHODS: We analyzed the documented effects of media exposure on children's mental and physical health. RESULTS: According to recent studies, MD may interfere with learning, children development, well being, sleep, sight, listening, caregiver-child relationship. DISCUSSION: Pediatricians should be aware of both the beneficial and side effects of MD and give advice to the families, according to children's age. CONCLUSION: In according to literature, the Italian Pediatric Society suggest that the media device exposure in childhood should be modulated by supervisors

Application of Runge Kutta time marching scheme for the computation of transonic flows in turbomachines

Numerical solutions of the unsteady Euler equations are obtained using the classical fourth order Runge Kutta time marching scheme. This method is fully explicit and is applied to the governing equations in the finite volume, conservation law form. In order to determine the efficiency of this scheme for solving turbomachinery flows, steady blade-to-blade solutions are obtained for compressor and turbine cascades under subsonic and transonic flow conditions. Computed results are compared with other numerical methods and wind tunnel measurements. The study also focuses on other important numerical aspects influencing the performance of the algorithm and the solution accuracy such as grid types, boundary conditions and artificial viscosity. For this purpose, H, O, and C type computational grids as well as characteristic and extrapolation type boundary conditions are included in solution procedures

Le Enumerazioni di Montale

The author studies the literary figure of enumeration in the first three collections of poems by Montale (Ossi di seppia, 1925; Occasioni, 1939; La bufera e altro, 1956) in an attempt to examine the motifs in them, ranging from the depiction of landscapes and surroundings (in the first collection) to the preparation for the ?moment of grace? in the form of the appearance of Clizia, the female protagonist of Occasioni and part of La Bufera. When, in the third collection, these motifs, which are at once thematic and existential, start to be less prominent, the enumeration tends to become ?chaotic?: the constituents have no semantic or symbolic motivation capable of maintaining cohesion because they no longer convey any meaning. In this context, if realism was first used as a vehicle for symbolism, and therefore articulated homogeneously, now it only expresses its own meaning, a fragment or remnant of a memory that is random and ?minimalist?, and thus attached to other objects, with which it has only an indirect link

Le Enumerazioni di Montale

The author studies the literary figure of enumeration in the first three collections of poems by Montale (Ossi di seppia, 1925; Occasioni, 1939; La bufera e altro, 1956) in an attempt to examine the motifs in them, ranging from the depiction of landscapes and surroundings (in the first collection) to the preparation for the ?moment of grace? in the form of the appearance of Clizia, the female protagonist of Occasioni and part of La Bufera. When, in the third collection, these motifs, which are at once thematic and existential, start to be less prominent, the enumeration tends to become ?chaotic?: the constituents have no semantic or symbolic motivation capable of maintaining cohesion because they no longer convey any meaning. In this context, if realism was first used as a vehicle for symbolism, and therefore articulated homogeneously, now it only expresses its own meaning, a fragment or remnant of a memory that is random and ?minimalist?, and thus attached to other objects, with which it has only an indirect link

Design, synthesis and evaluation of bacterial sialic acid uptake inhibitors

Antibiotic resistance is a major threat for our society and finding novel antibacterial therapies is of greatimportance. In this thesis, we investigate bacterial sialic acid uptake inhibitors as a novel antibacterial approach.Bacteria do not biosynthesise sialic acid and therefore harvest it from the host. Sialic acid plays a crucial role forpathogenic bacteria, since it is used as a source of carbon and in a immuno-evasive mechanism called “molecularmimicry”. Disrupting genes involved in bacterial sialic acid catabolism and transport has been proven to alter thebacterial growth and infectivity in vivo. We identified the SiaT transporter, from the sodium solute transporter(SSS) family, from Proteus mirabilis (PmSiaT) and Staphylococcus aureus (SaSiaT), as starting targets for ourinvestigations. Firstly, a library of sialic acid derivatives with single modifications at O4, N5 and C9 was designed,synthesised and tested on the two targets with a thermal shift assay called nano differential scanning fluorimetry(nanoDSF). Subsequentially, the most promising hits were investigated with isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC),and proteoliposome and bacterial growth assays. Our best compound, with a 3,5-dibromobenzyl substituent at O4,showed mid-nanomolar affinity, a 185-fold increase for PmSiaT compared to the natural substrate. The bestcompounds block sialic acid uptake with a competitive mode of action and delay bacterial growth in the case of S.aureus.With these initial promising results, we focussed on targeting multiple bacterial sialic acid transporter families, inparticular the substrate binding proteins (SBP) from the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) and tripartite ATPindipendentperiplasmic (TRAP) transporter families. NanoDSF and ITC were again employed as methods toevaluate the previously developed compound library and establish structure activity relationships for the newtargets. We identified C9 and, potentially, O4 as promising sites of derivatisation for broad spectrum bacterialsialic acid uptake inhibitors.To follow on the promising leads obtained from the 4-O-benzyl series, we designed a new library of derivativesbearing 4-N-piperidine and piperazine as spacers between C4 and the aromatic moiety. Clear trends wereobserved when adding either electron-withdrawing or donating groups, with the former significantly enhancingaffinity.Lastly, we developed a new methodology to functionalise C4 of sialic acid, starting from methyl (5-acetamido-4,7,8,9-tetra-O-acetyl-3,5-dideoxy-D-glycero-D-galacto-2-nonulopyranosid)onate. The procedure allows for theintroduction of nitrogen, sulfur and carbon nucleophiles in a single step, with retention of the configuration, withoutthe requirement for special conditions. With this procedure, the scope of C4 functionalisations is greatly expandedto sustain future sialic acid centered drug discovery and chemical biology investigations.The results of this thesis represent the first examples of bacterial sialic acid uptake inhibition. Our efforts enabledthe identification of promising leads and methodologies to be used in the future to develop this class ofcompounds as novel antibacterial drugs

Design, synthesis and evaluation of bacterial sialic acid uptake inhibitors

Antibiotic resistance is a major threat for our society and finding novel antibacterial therapies is of great importance. In this thesis, we investigate bacterial sialic acid uptake inhibitors as a novel antibacterial approach. Bacteria do not biosynthesise sialic acid and therefore harvest it from the host. Sialic acid plays a crucial role for pathogenic bacteria, since it is used as a source of carbon and in a immuno-evasive mechanism called “molecular mimicry”. Disrupting genes involved in bacterial sialic acid catabolism and transport has been proven to alter the bacterial growth and infectivity in vivo. We identified the SiaT transporter, from the sodium solute transporter (SSS) family, from Proteus mirabilis (PmSiaT) and Staphylococcus aureus (SaSiaT), as starting targets for our investigations. Firstly, a library of sialic acid derivatives with single modifications at O4, N5 and C9 was designed, synthesised and tested on the two targets with a thermal shift assay called nano differential scanning fluorimetry (nanoDSF). Subsequentially, the most promising hits were investigated with isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), and proteoliposome and bacterial growth assays. Our best compound, with a 3,5-dibromobenzyl substituent at O4, showed mid-nanomolar affinity, a 185-fold increase for PmSiaT compared to the natural substrate. The best compounds block sialic acid uptake with a competitive mode of action and delay bacterial growth in the case of S. aureus. With these initial promising results, we focussed on targeting multiple bacterial sialic acid transporter families, in particular the substrate binding proteins (SBP) from the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) and tripartite ATP-indipendent periplasmic (TRAP) transporter families. NanoDSF and ITC were again employed as methods to evaluate the previously developed compound library and establish structure activity relationships for the new targets. We identified C9 and, potentially, O4 as promising sites of derivatisation for broad spectrum bacterial sialic acid uptake inhibitors. To follow on the promising leads obtained from the 4-O-benzyl series, we designed a new library of derivatives bearing 4-N-piperidine and piperazine as spacers between C4 and the aromatic moiety. Clear trends were observed when adding either electron-withdrawing or donating groups, with the former significantly enhancing affinity. Lastly, we developed a new methodology to functionalise C4 of sialic acid, starting from methyl (5-acetamido-4,7,8,9-tetra-O-acetyl-3,5-dideoxy-D-glycero-D-galacto-2-nonulopyranosid)onate. The procedure allows for the introduction of nitrogen, sulfur and carbon nucleophiles in a single step, with retention of the configuration, without the requirement for special conditions. With this procedure, the scope of C4 functionalisations is greatly expanded to sustain future sialic acid centered drug discovery and chemical biology investigations. The results of this thesis represent the first examples of bacterial sialic acid uptake inhibition. Our efforts enabled the identification of promising leads and methodologies to be used in the future to develop this class of compounds as novel antibacterial drugs

Sustainable deinking processes to recover post-industrial printed plastic films

The current commercial deinking technology uses non-bio-based surfactants and nonrenewable surfactants, which are harmful to the environment. Therefore, the main objective of current research is to develop an environmentally sustainable process for ink removal on printed post-industrial flexible plastic films using bio-based surfactants. This process focuses on obtaining a deinked plastic that may be reprinted, thus avoiding for inappropriate disposal or reprocessing problems. The value increase of upcycling such post-industrial waste makes it possible to match the quality of the virgin plastic, which is key to carrying out an effective cost analysis of recycled plastic when compared to the new plastic films. In this research, the use of aqueous bio-based surfactant solutions for plastic film deinking was analyzed and discussed, since these surfactants are more environmentally friendly. Dedicated laboratory deinking procedures were undertaken with transparent polyethylene films printed by flexography with different conditions. In the end, a dedicated design proposal for a prototype to industrially deink plastic films printed was presented and discussed.COMPETE 2020 (Lisboa, PT) GRANT_NUMBER: POCI-01-0247- FEDER-04609