The human body as a problem in post-modern culture

The discourse on the body today appears problematic because the uncertain and changing characteristics of our culture, whose postmodern title is by now insufficient and controversial, place it at the crossroads of ethical, political and biomedical issues. In this paper, the theme is articulated around the dissociation between body and freedom, indicated by several parties as one of the characteristics of the modern subject. This dissociation is at the root of the fundamental ambivalence with which one looks at the body: on the one hand it is exalted as an image of one's own identity, on the other one attempts to control it in its dynamisms, in the name of individual self-determination. This ambivalence also concerns the progress of biomedical techniques: these are acclaimed if considered a resource for the management of one's body or, on the contrary, rejected if considered an obstacle to self-affirmation. The positive proposal presupposes an integral anthropology, which overcomes both a naturalistic vision of the body and a purely symbolic vision

Free-living marine nematodes from San Antonio Bay (Río Negro, Argentina)

The dataset of free-living marine nematodes of San Antonio Bay is based on sediment samples collected in February 2009 during doctoral theses funded by CONICET grants. A total of 36 samples has been taken at three locations in the San Antonio Bay, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina on the coastal littoral at three tidal levels. This presents a unique and important collection for benthic biodiversity assessment of Patagonian nematodes as this area remains one of the least known regions. In total 7,743 specimens of free-living marine nematodes belonging to two classes, eight orders, 37 families, 94 genera and 104 species were collected.Fil: Villares, Maria Gabriela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Lo Russo, Virginia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Instituto de Diversidad y Evolución Austral; ArgentinaFil: Pastor, Catalina Teresa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Instituto de Diversidad y Evolución Austral; ArgentinaFil: Milano, Viviana. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia; ArgentinaFil: Miyashiro, Lidia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Mazzanti, Renato. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; Argentin

Waterborne outbreak of Norwalk-like virus gastroenteritis at a tourist resort, Italy.

In July 2000, an outbreak of gastroenteritis occurred at a tourist resort in the Gulf of Taranto in southern Italy. Illness in 344 people, 69 of whom were staff members, met the case definition. Norwalk-like virus (NLV) was found in 22 of 28 stool specimens tested. The source of illness was likely contaminated drinking water, as environmental inspection identified a breakdown in the resort water system and tap water samples were contaminated with fecal bacteria. Attack rates were increased (51.4%) in staff members involved in water sports. Relative risks were significant only for exposure to beach showers and consuming drinks with ice. Although Italy has no surveillance system for nonbacterial gastroenteritis, no outbreak caused by NLV has been described previously in the country

A new species of Pontonema (Oncholaimidae, Nematoda) and a redescription of Pontonema incisum Wieser, 1953 from Santa Cruz and Chubut Provinces, Argentina

Pontonema golfonuevensis sp. nov. from Chubut Province, Argentina is described and a description of the male of Pontonema incisum Wieser, 1953 from Chubut and Santa Cruz provinces is provided. Pontonema golfonuevensis sp. nov. is characterized by having the slender sub-ventral teeth 25 µm long located at 24 % of stoma length, a short, broad dorsal tooth at 60 % of stoma length, excretory pore opening at level of base of the buccal cavity, and by having a ventral precloacal sensory field with four papillae and a glandular sub-ventral area with seven papilliform sensillae. The male of P. incisum has long slender sub-ventral teeth at 36 % of stoma length, a short broad dorsal tooth at 72 % of stoma length, excretory pore about two buccal cavity lengths from the anterior end, and a ventral precloacal sensory field without papillae and a glandular sub-ventral area with twelve to fourteen papilliform sensillae. A key for identification of males of Pontonema is presented.Fil: Villares, Maria Gabriela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Lo Russo, Virginia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Pastor, Catalina Teresa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; Argentin

Design of decorated self-assembling peptide hydrogels as architecture for mesenchymal stem cells

Hydrogels from self-assembling ionic complementary peptides have been receiving a lot of interest from the scientific community as mimetic of the extracellular matrix that can offer three-dimensional supports for cell growth or can become vehicles for the delivery of stem cells, drugs or bioactive proteins. In order to develop a 3D "architecture" for mesenchymal stem cells, we propose the introduction in the hydrogel of conjugates obtained by chemoselective ligation between a ionic-complementary self-assembling peptide (called EAK) and three different bioactive molecules: an adhesive sequence with 4 Glycine-Arginine-Glycine-Aspartic Acid-Serine-Proline (GRGDSP) motifs per chain, an adhesive peptide mapped on h-Vitronectin and the growth factor Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1). The mesenchymal stem cell adhesion assays showed a significant increase in adhesion and proliferation for the hydrogels decorated with each of the synthesized conjugates; moreover, such functionalized 3D hydrogels support cell spreading and elongation, validating the use of this class of self-assembly peptides-based material as very promising 3D model scaffolds for cell cultures, at variance of the less realistic 2D ones. Furthermore, small amplitude oscillatory shear tests showed that the presence of IGF-1-conjugate did not alter significantly the viscoelastic properties of the hydrogels even though differences were observed in the nanoscale structure of the scaffolds obtained by changing their composition, ranging from long, well-defined fibers for conjugates with adhesion sequences to the compact and dense film for the IGF-1-conjugate

Resting state functional thalamic connectivity abnormalities in patients with post-stroke sleep apnoea: a pilot case-control study

OBJECTIVE: Sleep apnoea is common after stroke, and has adverse effects on the clinical outcome of affected cases. Its pathophysiological mechanisms are only partially known. Increases in brain connectivity after stroke might influence networks involved in arousal modulation and breathing control. The aim of this study was to investigate the resting state functional MRI thalamic hyper connectivity of stroke patients affected by sleep apnoea (SA) with respect to cases not affected, and to healthy controls (HC). PATIENTS AND METHODS: A series of stabilized strokes were submitted to 3T resting state functional MRI imaging and full polysomnography. The ventral-posterior-lateral thalamic nucleus was used as seed. RESULTS: At the between groups comparison analysis, in SA cases versus HC, the regions significantly hyper-connected with the seed were those encoding noxious threats (frontal eye field, somatosensory association, secondary visual cortices). Comparisons between SA cases versus those without SA, revealed in the former group significantly increased connectivity with regions modulating the response to stimuli independently to their potentiality of threat (prefrontal, primary and somatosensory association, superolateral and medial-inferior temporal, associative and secondary occipital ones). Further significantly functionally hyper connections were documented with regions involved also in the modulation of breathing during sleep (pons, midbrain, cerebellum, posterior cingulate cortices), and in the modulation of breathing response to chemical variations (anterior, posterior and para-hippocampal cingulate cortices). CONCLUSIONS: Our preliminary data support the presence of functional hyper connectivity in thalamic circuits modulating sensorial stimuli, in patients with post-stroke sleep apnoea, possibly influencing both their arousal ability and breathing modulation during sleep

Accuracy of Two CE-Marked Blood Glucose Monitoring System Based on EN ISO 15197:2015

Blood glucose monitoring systems (BGMS) are essential for the management of diabetic patients. Although International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 15197:2015 criteria require rigorous monitoring of BGMS devices before commercialization, manufacturing quality standards may decline after FDA or EU approval. This work aimed to demonstrate the accuracy and precision of two BGMS devices currently available on the market. A laboratory study was conducted from June to August 2021 using two BGMS devices. One hundred samples were collected and evaluated according to ISO 15197:2015 guidelines. Over 95% accuracy was achieved by both devices using stricter ISO criteria (at least 95% of values within ±10 mg/dL or ±10% of the results of the reference measurement procedure). Analysis of the error grid showed that 99.5% of the results were in zone A. Surveillance of the accuracy and precision of BGMS devices after FDA and EU approval is an essential procedure to help patients and physicians manage glycemia and determine an appropriate outcome and personalized approach to diabetes treatment

Three new species and one new record of Campylaimus (Diplopeltidae, Nematoda) from Argentine coasts (Buenos Aires and Santa Cruz, Argentina)

Two new Campylaimus species from Arroyo Pareja, Buenos Aires province and one new species and one new record of Campylaimus from Puerto San Julián, Chubut province are described. The three species are characterized by the shape of the copulatory apparatus of the male and the presence of precloacal papillae. Campylaimus bonariensis sp. nov. has slender and arcuate spicules, with well-developed cephalization at the proximal end, tubular gubernaculum and three precloacal papillae; Campylaimus arcuatus sp. nov. has curved spicules, with well-developed cephalization at the proximal end, gubernaculum with dorso-caudally directed apophysis and five precloacal papillae; Campylaimus patagonicus sp. nov. has slender and arcuate spicules without proximal cephalization, gubernaculum with dorso-caudally directed apophysis and two precloacal papillae. An emended diagnosis of the genus Campylaimus and an identification key to species based on male characters are givenFil: Villares, Maria Gabriela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Martelli, Antonela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Lo Russo, Virginia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Pastor, Catalina Teresa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; Argentin

Identification of a Gait Pattern for Detecting Mild Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson's Disease

: The aim of this study was to determine a gait pattern, i.e., a subset of spatial and temporal parameters, through a supervised machine learning (ML) approach, which could be used to reliably distinguish Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients with and without mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Thus, 80 PD patients underwent gait analysis and spatial-temporal parameters were acquired in three different conditions (normal gait, motor dual task and cognitive dual task). Statistical analysis was performed to investigate the data and, then, five ML algorithms and the wrapper method were implemented: Decision Tree (DT), Random Forest (RF), Naïve Bayes (NB), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and K-Nearest Neighbour (KNN). First, the algorithms for classifying PD patients with MCI were trained and validated on an internal dataset (sixty patients) and, then, the performance was tested by using an external dataset (twenty patients). Specificity, sensitivity, precision, accuracy and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve were calculated. SVM and RF showed the best performance and detected MCI with an accuracy of over 80.0%. The key features emerging from this study are stance phase, mean velocity, step length and cycle length; moreover, the major number of features selected by the wrapper belonged to the cognitive dual task, thus, supporting the close relationship between gait dysfunction and MCI in PD