Publications by authors named "Valerio D"

The destructive aftermath of storms and typhoons in the Philippines more prominently affects isolated remote locations that lack methodical and strategic procedures to address the situation. One form of assistance provided during disasters is the construction of shelters, which can be categorized as emergency, temporary, or transitional, serving as protection during recovery periods. Cold-formed steel (CFS) is widely used, and its versatility in fabrication and configurability make it an ideal candidate for building emergency shelters that are lightweight, easy to assemble, upgradeable, and cost-effective.

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Background: People with cystic fibrosis carrying two nonsense alleles lack CFTR-specific treatment. Growing evidence supports the hypothesis that nonsense mutation identity affects therapeutic response, calling for mutation-specific CF models. We describe a novel W1282X mouse model and compare it to an existing G542X mouse.

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Feature generation tasks and feature databases are important for understanding how knowledge is organized in semantic memory, as they reflect not only the kinds of information that individuals hold about objects but also how objects are conceptually represented. Traditionally, semantic norms focus on a variety of object categories and, as a result, have a small number of concepts per semantic category. Here, our main goal is to create a more fine-grained feature database exclusively for one category of objects-manipulable objects.

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Understanding how we recognize objects requires unravelling the variables that govern the way we think about objects and the neural organization of object representations. A tenable hypothesis is that the organization of object knowledge follows key object-related dimensions. Here, we explored, behaviorally and neurally, the multidimensionality of object processing.

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Background: Recent studies indicate that COVID-19 has had a significant impact on access and continuity to opioid and benzodiazepine medications; little is known about its effect on access to and utilization of stimulant medications.

Objective: To investigate trends of dispensed stimulant medications in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic response.

Methods: Stimulant prescriptions dispensed during 2011-2021 were analyzed using the Massachusetts Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP), the state's data repository for all controlled substance medications dispensed to residents from retail pharmacies and out of state mail-order pharmacies.

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  • * The study focused on identifying ZIKV infection in mosquitoes from urban forests in Manaus, collecting a total of 905 samples from different mosquito species over several years.
  • * Findings revealed that 15% of certain mosquito pools tested positive for ZIKV, marking the first evidence of naturally infected mosquitoes in the Amazon area.
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  • The decline in fertility rates and the trend of women having children at older ages are major reasons for low pregnancy success rates in developed countries.
  • Epigenetic factors, which affect gene expression and can influence embryonic development, play a significant role in the outcomes of women undergoing IVF treatment.
  • The text outlines key epigenetic modifications that could impact female reproductive health and potentially improve the success rates of IVF.
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  • The study focuses on the risk of spillover and spillback of mosquito-borne viruses in neotropical regions, particularly at ecotones where humans, monkeys, and mosquitoes interact closely.
  • Researchers collected and analyzed almost 9,500 mosquitoes from various distances (0, 500, 1000, and 2000 m) from a rainforest reserve in Manaus, Brazil, uncovering that mosquito diversity and community composition change significantly within the first 500 meters.
  • The findings indicate that environmental variables, especially near the forest edge, influence mosquito species presence, which can help in identifying areas at higher risk for virus transmission and guide future risk assessment models.
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The mechanisms responsible for the similar muscle growth attained with high- and low-load resistance training (RT) have not yet been fully elucidated. One mechanism is related to the mechanical stimulus and the level of motor unit recruitment; another mechanism is related to the metabolic response. We investigated the electromyographic signal amplitude (sEMG) and the general metabolic response to high-load RT (HL) and low-load resistance training (LL).

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Current research into the production of sustainable construction materials for retrofitting and strengthening historic structures has been rising, with geopolymer technology being seen as an advantageous alternative to traditional concrete. Fiber reinforcement using this novel cementitious material involves a low embodied carbon footprint while ensuring cohesiveness with local materials. This study aims to develop fly ash-based geopolymers reinforced with six different types of fibers: polyvinyl alcohol, polypropylene, chopped basalt, carbon fiber, and copper-coated stainless steel.

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Episodic memory decline is a major signature of both normal and pathological aging. Many neural regions have been implicated in the processes subserving both episodic memory and typical aging decline. Here, we demonstrate that the cerebellum is causally involved episodic memory under aging.

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  • - The study discusses the challenges of maintaining the neotropical mosquito species, a key vector for sylvatic yellow fever virus, in captivity, as it has never been bred beyond the F generation since 1921.
  • - Researchers developed methods such as installment hatching, artificial blood feeding, and forced-mating techniques, successfully producing F generation eggs for the first time and achieving a 62.8% hatching rate.
  • - Although they could not sustain a laboratory colony beyond the F generation, their techniques lay the groundwork for future experimental studies, which are important for addressing the risks of viruses like dengue and Zika in regions with high disease transmission.
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Neural processing within a local brain region that responds to more than one object category (e.g., hands and tools) nonetheless have different functional connectivity patterns with other distal brain areas, which suggests that local processing can affect and/or be affected by processing in distal areas, in a category-specific way.

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Background: The performance of traditional risk score systems to predict (post)-operative outcomes is limited. This weakness reduces confidence in its use to support clinical risk mitigation decisions. However, the rapid growth of health data in the last years offers principles to deal with some of these limitations.

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In allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT), falls can lead to immediate and late consequences and in some cases to death. We analyzed risks and causes of falls with root cause analysis (RCA) based on which improvement interventions were implemented.A retrospective observational study was conducted to analyze with RCA data of incidence reports and medical records of patients admitted; an expert panel identified actions to prevent falls, which were collected in a checklist.

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Purpose: Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) control gene expression at multiple levels. By interacting with microRNAs (miRNAs), they regulate their mRNA targets creating dynamic regulatory networks involved in different cellular processes. Their role in follicle development and oocyte maturation has recently emerged.

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To report findings from qualitative research that describe sources of hesitancy and barriers to vaccine uptake among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA) populations. In March 2021, we conducted focus groups with members of the Los Angeles, California LGBTQIA community to identify barriers to becoming vaccinated. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 32 individuals in 5 focus groups.

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In Portugal, there is no gold standard test to assess acute stroke patients in the hospital context. However, cognitive deficits are common after a stroke episode and are followed by a negative impact on a patient's quality of life and rehabilitation. Here, we first aimed to adapt the Oxford Cognitive Screening to European Portuguese speakers (OCS-Pt), develop normative data cut-offs, and report the psychometric properties of the OCS-Pt.

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In the Americas, some mosquito-borne viruses such as Zika, chikungunya, and dengue circulate among humans in urban transmission cycles, while others, including yellow fever and Mayaro, circulate among monkeys in sylvatic cycles. The intersection of humans and wildlife at forest edges creates risk for zoonotic virus exchange. We built a scaffold tower at the edge of a treefall gap in rainforest bordering Manaus, Brazil, to identify vectors that may bridge transmission between humans and monkeys.

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Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been studied to enhance extinction-based treatments for anxiety disorders. However, the field shows conflicting results about its anxiolytic effect and only a few studies have observed the extinction of consolidated memories. We looked to study the effect of offline 1 mA tDCS over the right dorsolateral pre-frontal cortex across the fear pathways, in consolidated fear response during delayed extinction.

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  • Bone is continually renewed in adults through a balanced process of resorption and formation, but this environment also promotes tumor growth, particularly from breast and prostate cancers.
  • Mathematical models using differential equations can simulate both normal bone remodeling and the impact of metastases, highlighting how tumors disrupt this balance and contribute to their own growth.
  • The paper discusses new biochemical models, some featuring fewer parameters, that effectively represent interactions between tumors and bone, while also considering the effects of anti-cancer therapies on bone integrity.
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Deciding how to manipulate an object to fulfill a goal requires accessing different types of object-related information. How these different types of information are integrated and represented in the brain is still an open question. Here, we focus on examining two types of object-related information-tool-gesture knowledge (i.

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The Toulouse-Piéron Cancelation Test (TP) is a classic psychometric tool for the assessment of selective/sustained attention, processing speed and visuo-perceptual abilities. It is commonly used in neurological disorders such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis or Alzheimer's disease. It encompasses two main indexes: Work-Efficiency (WE) and Dispersion-Index (DI).

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When we see a manipulable object (henceforth tool) or a hand performing a grasping movement, our brain is automatically tuned to how that tool can be grasped (i.e., its affordance) or what kind of grasp that hand is performing (e.

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