Complete coding sequence of an Aedes flavivirus strain isolated from collected in Northern Italy.

Complete genome data for the globally distributed Aedes flavivirus (AEFV) is scarce. We analyzed a new Italian AEFV strain isolated from . The results demonstrated genetic diversity among Italian AEFVs.

Neuromuscular complications following targeted therapy in cancer patients: beyond the immune checkpoint inhibitors. Case reports and review of the literature.

Introduction: In the last years, many new drugs have been developed targeting different oncology pathways, overall improving both quality of life and survival in several malignancies. However, the increase of those therapies is associated with novel toxicities, mainly immune-related adverse events (irAEs), never observed before. Different irAEs are now well characterized, and, among them, neuromuscular complications, following immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICPi) therapy, are increasingly studied and described.

Automation of the I-PASS Tool to Improve Transitions of Care.

Introduction: Errors in communication during handoffs are a significant source of medical error and put patients at risk. The I-PASS system was designed to systematically communicate information to the oncoming healthcare provider and has been shown to decrease the risk of communication errors. The objective of this observational quality improvement study was to determine whether the addition of a partially automated, electronic handoff tool would further decrease errors in communication during transitions of care for inpatient medical teams.

Detection of sleep-disordered breathing with ambulatory Holter monitoring.

Purpose: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) syndrome is a common condition that can impact clinical outcomes among patients with cardiovascular disease. Screening all subjects with heart disease via polysomnography (PSG) is costly and resource-limited. We sought to compare a Holter monitor-based algorithm to detect OSA to in-laboratory polysomnography (PSG).

Severe Systemic Lead Toxicity Resulting From Extra-Articular Retained Shrapnel Presenting as Jaundice and Hepatitis: A Case Report and Review of the Literature.

Introduction: Despite greater than 60,000 nonfatal firearm injuries per year in the United States, retained shrapnel is a relatively rare cause of systemic lead toxicity with less than 100 cases reported in the medical literature since 1867. While intra-articular retained shrapnel as a cause of lead toxicity is well-described, extra-articular fragments are less well known to cause symptomatic disease.

Case Report: A 31-year-old man initially presented with abdominal pain, constipation, jaundice, and elevated liver transaminases approximately 3 weeks after suffering a left lower extremity injury during athletic activity.

A uniform approach for programming distributed heterogeneous computing systems.

Large-scale compute clusters of heterogeneous nodes equipped with multi-core CPUs and GPUs are getting increasingly popular in the scientific community. However, such systems require a combination of different programming paradigms making application development very challenging. In this article we introduce libWater, a library-based extension of the OpenCL programming model that simplifies the development of heterogeneous distributed applications.

Theory of mind, empathy and neuropsychological functioning in X-linked spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy: a controlled study of 20 patients.

Recent studies have described brain involvement, mainly at frontal level, in patients with spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA), a rare adult-onset motor neuron disease caused by a CAG repeat in the androgen receptor (AR) gene. The aim of our research was to investigate the poorly characterized neuropsychological and psychological profile of these patients, on the basis of previous literature. We administered a neuropsychological screening and tests relating to cognitive and affective empathy, attributed to the theory of mind (ToM) framework, to 20 males with SBMA, and to age- and education-matched controls.

Assessing the interaction of respiration and heart rate in heart failure and controls using ambulatory Holter recordings.

Breathing is a critical component of cardiopulmonary function, but few tools exist to evaluate respiration in ambulatory patients. Holter monitoring allows accurate diagnosis of a host of cardiac issues, and several investigators have demonstrated the ability to detect respiratory effort on the electrocardiogram. In this study we introduce a myogram signal derived from 12-lead, high frequency Holter as a means of detecting respiratory effort.

Isolation and full genomic characterization of Batai virus from mosquitoes, Italy 2009.

In 2009, 2589 mosquitoes were collected in northwest Italy and screened for orthobunyavirus RNA by RT-PCR. One pool of Anopheles maculipennis complex mosquitoes was found to be positive and a virus was isolated from that pool. The isolate was identified as Batai virus (BATV) by sequencing.

Efficacy of hypnosis-based treatment in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a pilot study.

Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and its devastating neurodegenerative consequences have an inevitably psychological impact on patients and their caregivers: however, although it would be strongly needed, there is a lack of research on the efficacy of psychological intervention. Our aim was to investigate the effect of hypnosis-based intervention on psychological and perceived physical wellbeing in patients and the indirect effect on caregivers.

Methods: We recruited eight ALS volunteers patients as a pilot sample for an hypnosis intervention and self-hypnosis training protocol lasting 1 month.

Evidence of mosquito-transmitted flavivirus circulation in Piedmont, north-western Italy.

Background: Flavivirus is a highly heterogeneous viral genus that includes important human pathogens and several viral strains with unknown zoonotic potential. Mosquito-borne flaviviruses have been isolated and characterized in Northern Italy: West Nile virus and Usutu virus were detected in mosquitoes and in different host species and recent studies provided evidence about the circulation of "insect Flavivirus" strains.

Methods: In order to clarify the diffusion and the distribution of the mosquito-transmitted flaviviruses in Italy, we analyzed Culex and Ochlerotatus mosquitoes collected in 2009 and 2010 in an area divided evenly between hills and plains and where the landscape is dominated by mixed agricultural patches, rice fields, deciduous tree forests, and urban environments.

Conflicts between ethics and law for military mental health providers.

Military mental health providers routinely experience mixed-agency ethical dilemmas when obligations to patients and the military conflict. Particularly difficult mixed-agency dilemmas occur when a military psychiatrist, psychologist, or social worker encounters an apparent conflict between an ethical obligation--enumerated in a professional code of ethics--and a federal statute. This article explores ethical-legal conflicts for uniformed mental health providers.

Double-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid binds to HLA class II molecules and inhibits HLA class II-mediated antigen presentation.

CD4+ T cells proliferating in response to purified double-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (dsDNA) have been recently demonstrated in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. Their activation was inhibited by anti-HLA class II (HLA-II) monoclonal antibodies; thus, the existence of a molecular interaction between dsDNA and HLA-II is conceivable. In this report we show that dsDNA specifically bind to HLA-II.

dsDNA-, nucleohistone- and DNASE I-reactive T lymphocytes in patients affected by systemic lupus erythematosus: correlation with clinical disease activity.

Objective: To demonstrate the involvement of T lymphocytes reactive to autoantigens in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases and to analyse their clinical relevance.

Methods: The frequency of T cell clones reactive to double strand DNA (dsDNA), Nucleohistone (NH) complex and Dnase I was calculated for the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of 15 SLE patients and 9 healthy subjects by proliferation assay.

Results: DsDNA- and NH-specific T cell clones were found in the majority of the patients analysed (frequency ranging from 2 to 50 clones/10(7) PBMC), while their absence or very low frequency (2 clones/10(7) PBMC) was observed in the control PBMC.

[Moderated normovolemic hemodilution in surgery of the cervical rachis].

During eighteen orthopedic surgery operation on the cervical spine (C4-D1) we could verify that the moderate hemodilution combined with technique of anaesthesia providing for the controlled hypotension, is the only methodic with renal saving of homologous blood and absence of transfusion reaction.