Wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 variants in October-November 2022 in Italy: detection of XBB.1, BA.2.75 and rapid spread of the BQ.1 lineage.

This study adds insight regarding the occurrence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern (VOCs) and Variants of Interest (VOIs) in Italy in October and November 2022, by testing urban wastewater collected throughout the country. A total of 332 wastewater samples were collected from 20 Italian Regions/Autonomous Provinces (APs) within the framework of national SARS-CoV-2 environmental surveillance. Of these, 164 were collected in the first week of October and 168 in the first week of November.

AVALON: The Italian cohort study on real-life efficacy of hypomethylating agents plus venetoclax in newly diagnosed or relapsed/refractory patients with acute myeloid leukemia.

Background: Venetoclax in combination with hypomethylating agents (HMA) is revolutionizing the therapy of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, evidence on large sets of patients is lacking, especially in relapsed or refractory leukemia.

Methods: AVALON is a multicentric cohort study that was conducted in Italy on patients with AML who received venetoclax-based therapies from 2015 to 2020.

[Sodium balance and peritoneal ultrafiltration in refractory heart failure].

About 5% of patients with heart failure (HF) reach the end-stage of disease, becoming refractory to therapy. The clinical course of end-stage HF is characterized by repeated hospitalizations, severe symptoms, and poor quality of life. Peritoneal ultrafiltration (PUF), removing water and sodium (Na+), can benefit patients with end-stage HF.

Florentine Normative Values for Physical Fitness in Adolescents Aged 14-15 Years.

Physical fitness during youth is linked to the health of today's young people and future adults. Therefore, fitness evaluation can direct any physical exercise interventions and verify improvements. The study aims to provide normative values of the physical fitness of the Florentine adolescent population.

Measurements of the associated production of a W boson and a charm quark in proton-proton collisions at .

Measurements of the associated production of a W boson and a charm ( ) quark in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 are reported. The analysis uses a data sample corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 19.7 collected by the CMS detector at the LHC.

The van der Waals interactions in systems involving superheavy elements: the case of oganesson ( = 118).

This work presents a study involving dimers composed of He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, Rn, and Og noble gases with oganesson, a super-heavy closed-shell element ( = 118). He-Og, Ne-Og, Ar-Og, Kr-Og, Xe-Og, Rn-Og, and Og-Og ground state electronic potential energy curves were calculated based on the 4-component (4c) Dirac-Coulomb Hamiltonian and were counterpoise corrected. For the 4c calculations, the electron correlation was taken into account using the same methodology (MP2-srLDA) and basis set quality (Dyall's acv3z and Dunning's aug-cc-PVTZ).

Helium nanodroplets as an efficient tool to investigate hydrogen attachment to alkali cations.

We report a novel method to reversibly attach and detach hydrogen molecules to positively charged sodium clusters formed inside a helium nanodroplet host matrix. It is based on the controlled production of multiply charged helium droplets which, after picking up sodium atoms and exposure to H vapor, lead to the formation of Na(H) clusters, whose population was accurately measured using a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. The mass spectra reveal particularly favorable Na(H) and Na(H) clusters for specific "magic" numbers of attached hydrogen molecules.

Metabolomic and Proteomic Changes in Biofilm in Response to Zosteric Acid Treatment.

Zosteric acid (ZA) is a secondary metabolite of the seagrass with antibiofilm activity against fungi. Information concerning its mechanisms of action is lacking and this limits the development of more potent derivatives based on the same target and activity structure. The aim of this work was to investigate the ZA mode of action by analyzing the metabolic status of biofilm and its protein expression profile upon ZA treatment.

Modeling Inflammatory Bowel Disease by Intestinal Organoids.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic and relapsing disease caused by a dysregulated immune response to host intestinal microbiota that occurs in genetically predisposed individuals. IBD encompasses two major clinical entities: ulcerative colitis (UC), limited to the colonic mucosa, and Crohn's disease (CD), which might affect any segment of the gastrointestinal tract. Despite the prevalence of IBD increasing worldwide, therapy remains suboptimal, largely because of the variability of causative mechanisms, raising the need to develop individualized therapeutic approaches targeted to each individual patient.

Scattering of N Molecules from Silica Surfaces: Effect of Polymorph and Surface Temperature.

The inelastic scattering of N molecules from silica surfaces, taken at 100 K, has been investigated by adopting a semiclassical collision model in conjunction with the appropriate treatment of the long-range interaction forces. Such forces promote the formation of the precursor state that controls all basic elementary processes occurring at the gas-surface interphase. The probabilities for the different elementary surface processes triggered by quartz are determined and compared with those recently obtained for another silica polymorph (cristobalite).

Manipulation of Magnetic Skyrmion Density in Continuous Ir/Co/Pt Multilayers.

We show that magnetic skyrmions can be stabilised at room temperature in continuous [Ir/Co/Pt] multilayers on SiO/Si substrates without the prior application of electric current or magnetic field. While decreasing the Co thickness, a transition of the magnetic domain patterns from worm-like state to separated stripes is observed. The skyrmions are clearly imaged in both states using magnetic force microscopy.

Engineering Auxetic Cylinders and Intestine to Improve Longitudinal Intestinal Lengthening and Tailoring Procedure.

Auxetic materials can be exploited for coupling different types of tissues. Herein, we designed a material where the microorganism metabolic activity yields the formation of buckled/collapsed bubbles within gelling silicone cylinders thus providing auxetic properties. The finite element model of such hollow auxetic cylinders demonstrated the tubular structure to promote worm-like peristalsis.

[A national survey on occupational safety and health: the role of the health and safety representatives.].

The IMPAcT-RLS2 survey is part of a larger context of INSuLa2 research program; its first edition was conducted in 2014 and targeted to all prevention professionals, investigating occupational health and safety (OSH) protection issues perceived by the various professionals' point of view. The survey addressed to Health and Safety Representatives (HS reps.), focused on three regional contexts, was further implemented in 2016 through the IMPAcT-RLS survey, which involved a sample representative at national level, by company size and economic activity sector consisting of about 2,100 subjects.

Presence and localization of apelin and its cognate receptor in canine testes using immunohistochemical and RT-PCR techniques.

Apelin, a member of the adipokine family, is a novel endogenous peptide which regulates the male reproductive system of mammals by interacting with a specific receptor. Recent studies have highlighted that apelin may play a role in the regulation of reproduction by reducing testosterone production and inhibiting LH secretion. To the best of our knowledge, there is no available data on the presence of the apelin and its receptor in canine testes.

Pressure response to fluid challenge administration in hypotensive surgical patients: a post-hoc pharmacodynamic analysis of five datasets.

In this study we evaluated the effect of fluid challenge (FC) administration in elective surgical patients with low or normal blood pressure. Secondarily, we appraised the pharmacodynamic effect of FC in normotensive and hypotensive patients. We assessed five merged datasets of patients with a baseline mean arterial pressure (MAP) above or below 65 mmHg and assessed the changes of systolic, diastolic, mean and dicrotic arterial pressures, dynamic indexes of fluid responsiveness and arterial elastance over a 10-min infusion.

Laparoscopic appendectomy, stump closure and endoloops: A meta-analysis.

Background: Acute appendicitis (AA) is one of the main indications for urgent surgery. Laparoscopic appendectomy (LA) has shown advantages in terms of clinical results and cost-effectiveness, even if there is still controversy about different devices to utilize, especially with regards to the endoloop (EL) endostapler (ES) when it comes to stump closure.

Aim: To compare safety and cost-effectiveness of EL ES.

Combinatorial targeting of G-protein-coupled bile acid receptor 1 and cysteinyl leukotriene receptor 1 reveals a mechanistic role for bile acids and leukotrienes in drug-induced liver injury.

Background And Aim: Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a common disorder that involves both direct liver cell toxicity and immune activation. The bile acid receptor, G-protein-coupled bile acid receptor 1 (GPBAR1; Takeda G-protein-coupled receptor 5 [TGR5]), and cysteinyl leukotriene receptor (CYSLTR) 1 are G-protein-coupled receptors activated by bile acids and leukotrienes, exerting opposite effects on cell-to-cell adhesion, inflammation, and immune cell activation. To investigate whether GPBAR1 and CYSLTR1 mutually interact in the development of DILI, we developed an orally active small molecule, CHIN117, that functions as a GPBAR1 agonist and CYSLTR1 antagonist.

Search for Higgs Boson Pair Production in the Four b Quark Final State in Proton-Proton Collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV.

A search for pairs of Higgs bosons produced via gluon and vector boson fusion is presented, focusing on the four b quark final state. The data sample consists of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC, and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 138  fb^{-1}. No deviation from the background-only hypothesis is observed.

Reconfigurable Magnonic Crystals Based on Imprinted Magnetization Textures in Hard and Soft Dipolar-Coupled Bilayers.

Reconfigurable magnetization textures offer control of spin waves with promising properties for future low-power beyond-CMOS systems. However, materials with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) suitable for stable magnetization-texture formation are characterized by high damping, which limits their applicability in magnonic devices. Here, we propose to overcome this limitation by using hybrid structures, i.

Hereditary spastic paraplegia: Genetic heterogeneity and common pathways.

Hereditary Spastic Paraplegias (HSPs) are a heterogeneous group of disease, mainly characterized by progressive spasticity and weakness of the lower limbs resulting from distal degeneration of corticospinal tract axons. Although HSPs represent rare or ultra-rare conditions, with reported cases of mutated genes found in single families, overall, with 87 forms described, they are an important health and economic problem for society and patients. In fact, they are chronic and life-hindering conditions, still lacking a specific therapy.

Cellular Mechanosensitivity: Validation of an Adaptable 3D-Printed Device for Microindentation.

Mechanotransduction refers to the cellular ability to sense mechanical stimuli from the surrounding environment and convert them into biochemical signals that regulate cellular physiology and homeostasis. Mechanosensitive ion channels (MSCs), especially ones of Piezo family (Piezo1 and Piezo2), play a crucial role in mechanotransduction. These transmembrane proteins directly react to mechanical cues by triggering the onset of an ionic current.

Effect of Wheat Crop Nitrogen Fertilization Schedule on the Phenolic Content and Antioxidant Activity of Sprouts and Wheatgrass Obtained from Offspring Grains.

This work was aimed at investigating the effects of rate and timing of nitrogen fertilization applied to a maternal wheat crop on phytochemical content and antioxidant activity of edible sprouts and wheatgrass obtained from offspring grains. We hypothesized that imbalance in N nutrition experienced by the mother plants translates into transgenerational responses on seedlings obtained from the offspring seeds. To this purpose, we sprouted grains of two bread wheat cultivars (Bologna and Bora) grown in the field under four N fertilization schedules: constantly well N fed with a total of 300 kg N ha; N fed only very early, i.