Publications by authors named "Guerra T"

Zinc (Zn) biofortification in food plants presents a good strategy to address inadequate Zn intake by humans, a major health concern. Unconventional food plants (UFPs), known for their rich nutritional profile, offer an accessible and nutritious alternative to the food system. This study evaluated the response of selected UFP species to Zn application.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study compares disability progression in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients based on age of onset: pediatric (POMS), adult (AOMS), and late-onset (LOMS), as well as those with and without progression independent of relapse activity (PIRA).
  • Data from 3,777 MS patients revealed that AOMS showed significant disability increases compared to POMS starting in the second year, with POMS having a less steep disability trajectory over time.
  • The findings underscore that younger patients with MS experience different disability progression patterns than older patients, highlighting the importance of age in MS disease management.
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Introduction: The transition from fingolimod (FIN) to siponimod (SIP) for Multiple Sclerosis (MS) treatment in the occurrence of Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (SPMS) diagnosis has increasingly attracted considerable interest in the recent literature.

Methods: We evaluated the efficacy and safety of a direct switch from FIN to SIP in nine MS patients who had switched directly from FIN to SIP due to SPMS diagnosis at the Multiple Sclerosis Center of the University Hospital Policlinico of Bari.

Results And Conclusion: Real-world results from our cohort demonstrated that the direct switch from FIN to SIP in patients transitioning in SP course is associated with clinical and disability progression stability, with a favorable safety profile.

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The aim of the present article is to design a robust fractional-order (FO) finite-time (FnT) control able to tackle Hölder disturbances of second-order nonlinear systems. First, a novel sliding manifold with Arc-Tangent function is suggested for second nonlinear systems. It has been proven that the system states globally converge to the origin in FnT using the proposed sliding mode variable.

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The prevalence of was assessed in 117 triatomine insects from central Texas. The PCR-based results revealed in 59% of the insects (62 adults and eight nymphs), with overall prevalences of of 0% (0/9), 64% (11/17), 58% (10/17), 73% (30/41), and 57% (19/33) for the Bastrop, Caldwell, Gonzales, Guadalupe, and Hays counties, respectively. Analyses of 18S rRNA fragments confirmed in 81% of these samples.

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Objective: No direct comparisons of the effect of natalizumab and ocrelizumab on progression independent of relapse activity (PIRA) and relapse-associated worsening (RAW) events are currently available. We aimed to compare the risk of achieving first 6 months confirmed PIRA and RAW events and irreversible Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) 4.0 and 6.

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AbstractMany Neotropical beetles present coloration patterns mimicking red-eyed flies, which are presumably evasive mimicry models. However, the role of predators in selecting for evasive mimics in nature remains untested. In a field experiment, we used nontoxic plasticine replicas of a specialized fly-mimicking beetle species, which we placed on the host plants of the beetles.

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Objectives: Cladribine tablets (CLAD) for adult patients with highly active relapsing multiple sclerosis (RMS) have been available in Italy since 2018. We aimed to assess predictors of no-evidence-of-disease-activity-3 (NEDA-3) status after 24 months of the last dose of CLAD.

Results: We included 88 patients (70.

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Children with perinatally acquired human immunodeficiency virus (PHIV) are growing into adulthood with HIV and treatment-associated comorbidities, such as dyslipidemia and insulin resistance. HIV is identified as independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). The hypothesis behind increased CVD risk associated with HIV includes vascular inflammation, dyslipidemia and combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) metabolomic toxicity.

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The recent availability of open-access repositories of functional traits has revolutionized trait-based approaches in ecology and evolution. Nevertheless, the underrepresentation of tropical regions and lineages remains a pervasive bias in plant functional trait databases, which constrains large-scale assessments of plant ecology, evolution, and biogeography. Here, we present MelastomaTRAITs 1.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study analyzed the factors behind treatment changes in 4,739 patients with active relapsing-remitting and secondary progressive multiple sclerosis from the Italian MS Register, focusing on those who experienced relapses within the past two years.
  • - Results revealed that over half of the patients switched their disease-modifying therapy (DMT) due to clinical relapses, with those who switched being typically younger and less disabled than non-switchers.
  • - The use of high-efficacy DMTs, particularly anti-CD20 drugs like Alemtuzumab and Ocrelizumab, was shown to significantly lower the risk of needing to switch treatments due to disease activity.
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Strains CN4, CN6, CN7 and CNm7 were isolated from root nodules of from Murree in Pakistan. They do not form root nodules on nor on although they deformed root hairs of . The colonies are bright red-pigmented, the strains form hyphae and sporangia but no N-fixing vesicles and do not fix nitrogen .

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Article Synopsis
  • The study explored how pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis (POMS) compares to adult-onset (AOMS) and late-onset MS (LOMS) in terms of progression without relapse and disability levels, suggesting POMS patients may have better outcomes due to their ability to recover more effectively.* -
  • Data from over 16,000 MS patients indicated that while POMS patients showed less disability, they had higher disease activity and longer exposure to disease-modifying therapy (DMT) compared to AOMS and LOMS patients.* -
  • Key findings revealed that older age at onset and longer disease duration increased the risk of progression, while shorter DMT exposure correlated with better outcomes for POMS patients, highlighting the importance of
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Black scurf disease on potato caused by AG3 occurs worldwide and is difficult to control. The use of potato cultivars resistant to black scurf disease could be part of an integrated control strategy. Currently, the degree of resistance is based on symptom assessment in the field, but molecular measures could provide a more efficient screening method.

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Purpose: To analyze the effect of auditory-perceptual training by inexperienced speech-language pathologists in the classification of hypernasality in individuals with cleft lip and palate and compare their classification of hypernasality individually, with the gold standard evaluation, before and after this training.

Methods: Three inexperienced speech-language pathologists used a four-point scale to assess 24 high-pressure speech samples from individuals with cleft lip and palate, before and after auditory-perceptual training. The speech samples corresponded to six samples of each degree of hypernasality.

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Two primer set/probe combinations targeting variable regions on the 23S rRNA gene were designed to detect and quantify chlamydiae in DNA extracted from brain swabs of the endangered Houston toad (Anaxyrus houstonensis) using SYBRGreen- and Taqman-based quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Prevalence and abundance values for samples were generally different between SYBRGreen- and Taqman-based detection methods, with higher specificity observed for Taqman-based detection. Of the 314 samples analyzed, initial screening with SYBRGreen-based qPCR retrieved 138 positive samples, of which 52 were confirmed by Taqman-based analyses as chlamydiae.

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strain Ag45/Mut15 was isolated from a root nodule of growing in a swamp at lake Grossensee, Germany. The strain forms root nodules on , in which it produces hyphae and clusters of N-fixing vesicles. N-fixing vesicles are also produced in nitrogen-free growth medium, in addition to hyphae and sporangia.

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Introduction: Over the years, disease registers have been increasingly considered a source of reliable and valuable population studies. However, the validity and reliability of data from registers may be limited by missing data, selection bias or data quality not adequately evaluated or checked. This study reports the analysis of the consistency and completeness of the data in the Italian Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders Register.

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Neuro mechanical time delay is inevitable in the sensorimotor control of the body due to sensory, transmission, signal processing and muscle activation delays. In essence, time delay reduces stabilization efficiency, leading to system instability (e.g.

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The genomes of two nitrogen-fixing strains, AiPa1 and AiPs1, are described as representatives of two novel candidate species Both strains were isolated from root nodules of , used as capture plants in bioassays on soils from a reforested site at Karttula, Finland, that was devoid of actinorhizal plants but contained 25 year-old monocultures of spruce ( (L.) Karsten) or pine ( L.), respectively.

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Although cladribine induces sustained reductions in peripheral T and B lymphocytes, little is known about its effect on axonal damage reduction in multiple sclerosis (MS), which could be demonstrated by assessing the serum neurofilament light chain (sNfL) levels. We investigated the reduction/reconstitution of different lymphocyte subsets (LS) by verifying the correlation with no evidence of disease activity (NEDA) and the variation in sNfL levels during cladribine treatment. We analysed 33 highly active relapsing MS patients and followed them up for 12 ± 3.

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Encounters between flowers and invertebrates are key events for the functioning of tropical forests. Assessing the structure of networks composed of the interactions between those partners leads to a better understanding of ecosystem functioning and the effects of environmental factors on ecological processes. Gathering such data is, however, costly and time-consuming, especially in the highly diverse tropics.

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The sp. strain R82 genome is described as representative of a novel candidate species within cluster 1, as indicated by average nucleotide identity (ANI) analyses, with its closest relatives being Frankia nodulisporulans AgTrs and strains Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24 (86% identity).

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The genomes of two nitrogen-fixing strains, AgB32 and AgKG'84/4, were isolated from spore-containing (spore+) and spore-free (spore-) root nodules of , but they did not sporulate upon reinfection. The two strains are described as representatives of two novel candidate species Phylogenomic and ANI analyses indicate that each strain represents a novel species within cluster 1, with genome sizes of 6.3 and 6.

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Background: Definitions for reliable identification of transition from relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) to secondary progressive (SP)MS in clinical cohorts are not available.

Objectives: To compare diagnostic performances of two different data-driven SPMS definitions.

Methods: Data-driven SPMS definitions based on a version of Lorscheider's algorithm (DDA) and on the EXPAND trial inclusion criteria were compared, using the neurologist's definition (ND) as gold standard, in terms of sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), Akaike information criterion (AIC) and area under the curve (AUC).

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