•Classification of urban areas into local climate zones (LCZ).•CFD simulation of green cover in mitigating climate change and heat island effects.•20% increase in green cover could reduce surface ...temperatures by 2°C in 2050.•Green infrastructure option to achieve 20% increase in greenery is presented.
Although urban growth in the city of Glasgow, UK, has subsided, urban morphology continues to generate local heat islands. We present a relatively less data-intense method to classify local climate zones (LCZ) and evaluate the effectiveness of green infrastructure options in tackling the likely overheating problem in cold climate urban agglomerations such as the Glasgow Clyde Valley (GCV) Region. LCZ classification uses LIDAR data available with local authorities, based on the typology developed by Stewart and Oke (2012). LCZ classes were then used cluster areas likely to exhibit similar warming trends locally. This helped to identify likely problem areas, a sub-set of which were then modelled for the effect of green cover options (both increase and reduction in green cover) as well as building density options. Results indicate green infrastructure could play a significant role in mitigating the urban overheating expected under a warming climate in the GCV Region. A green cover increase of approximately 20% over the present level could eliminate a third to a half of the expected extra urban heat island effect in 2050. This level of increase in green cover could also lead to local reductions in surface temperature by up to 2°C. Over half of the street users would consider a 20% increase in green cover in the city centre to be thermally acceptable, even under a warm 2050 scenario. The process adopted here could be used to estimate the overheating problem as well as the effectiveness green infrastructure strategies to overcome them.
Results are presented on hyperon and antihyperon production in Pb–Pb, pPb and pBe collisions at 158 GeV/c per nucleon. Λ, Ξ and Ω yields have been measured at central rapidity and medium transverse ...momentum as functions of the centrality of the collision. Comparing the yields in Pb–Pb to those in pBe interactions, strangeness enhancement is observed. The enhancement increases with the centrality and with the strangeness content of the hyperons, reaching a factor of about 20 for the Ω in the central Pb–Pb collisions
Peracetic acid (PAA) is an alternative disinfectant that may be effective for combined sewer overflow (CSO) disinfection, but little is known about the effect of particle size on PAA disinfection ...efficiency. In this work, PAA and hypochlorite were compared as disinfectants, with a focus on the effect of wastewater particles. Inactivation experiments were conducted on suspended cultures of Escherichia coli and wastewater suspended solids. Tested size fractions included particle diameters <10μm, <100μm, and raw wastewater. Chlorine disinfection efficiency decreased with increasing solids size. However, solids size had little effect on PAA disinfection. The PAA disinfection efficiency decreased at pH values above 7.5. Live/dead staining revealed that PAA disinfection leaves most cells in a viable but non-culturable condition. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analyses suggests that PAA and hypochlorite may inactivate E. coli bacteria by similar mechanisms.
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•The efficiencies of peracetic acid (PAA) and hypochlorite were tested for different wastewater particle sizes.•Hypochlorite's efficiency decreased with larger particles, while PAA was less sensitive to size.•PAA was more effective at lower pH, while hypochlorite was more effective at higher pH.•PAA and hypochlorite appear to have similar cell inactivation mechanisms.
Background
Brodalumab was efficacious and safe in moderate‐to‐severe plaque‐type psoriasis in the AMAGINE trials; published reports under real‐life conditions are limited.
Objectives
To evaluate the ...effectiveness and safety of brodalumab in patients with moderate‐to‐severe plaque‐type psoriasis in a real‐world setting.
Methods
This observational, retrospective study enrolled adult patients (≥18 years) with moderate‐to‐severe plaque‐type psoriasis who underwent 24 weeks of treatment with brodalumab at 17 Italian dermatological centres. Baseline data included demographics, comorbidities, age of onset and duration of psoriasis and previous treatments. Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI), Physician Global Assessment (PGA), static PGA of Genitalia, Dermatology Life Quality Index and patient satisfaction were assessed at weeks 0, 4, 12 and 24; adverse events were recorded.
Results
Seventy‐eight patients (mean age 47.9 years, 71.8% male, average disease duration 16.8 years) were enrolled. A rapid and significant reduction in mean PASI score was observed after 4 weeks of treatment, decreasing further at weeks 12 and 24 (all P < 0.0001 vs. baseline). A higher number of cardiometabolic comorbidities and previous therapies were negatively associated with the achievement of PASI 90 at all assessments. Brodalumab was effective in bio‐experienced patients, including those who had failed on anti‐interleukin (IL)‐17 therapies. Quality of life and patient satisfaction increased significantly during treatment (P < 0.0001 and P < 0.01 vs. baseline, respectively). Treatment was interrupted in 9 (11.5%) patients due to adverse events (n = 4), lack of efficacy (n = 3), lost to follow‐up (n = 1) and surgical procedure (n = 1).
Conclusions
Brodalumab is effective and safe in the treatment of moderate‐to‐severe psoriasis in a real‐world setting, including in patients with failure to anti‐IL17 therapies.
Molecular features and genomic organization were determined for Citrus yellow vein clearing virus (CYVCV), the putative viral causal agent of yellow vein clearing disease of lemon trees, reported in ...Pakistan, India, and more recently in Turkey and China. CYVCV isolate Y1 from Adana, Turkey, was used for deep sequencing analysis of the virus-induced small RNA fractions and for mechanical and graft inoculation of herbaceous and citrus indicator plants. A polyclonal antiserum was developed from CYVCV-Y1 purified from Phaseolus vulgaris and used in western blot assays to characterize the coat protein of CYVCV-Y1 and determine its serological relationship with related viruses. Contigs assembled from the Illumina sequenced short reads were used to construct the whole genome of Citrus yellow vein clearing virus (CYVCV), consisting in a positive-sense RNA of 7,529 nucleotides and containing six predicted open reading frames. The CYVCV genome organization and size resembled that of flexiviruses, and search for sequence homologies revealed that Indian citrus ringspot virus (ICRSV) (Mandarivirus, Alphaflexiviridae) is the most closely related virus. However, CYVCV had an overall nucleotide sequence identity of ≈74% with ICRSV. Although the two viruses were similar with regard to genome organization, viral particles, and herbaceous host range, CYVCV caused different symptoms in citrus and was serologically distinct from ICRSV. Primer pairs were designed and used to detect the virus by conventional and quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction on yellow vein clearing symptomatic field trees as well as graft- and mechanically inoculated host plants. Collectively, these data suggest that CYVCV is the causal agent of yellow vein clearing disease and represents a new species in the genus Mandarivirus.
After the first confirmed outbreak of
Xylella fastidiosa
in the European Union (EU), associated with an olive disease denoted olive quick decline syndrome, mandatory surveys are now carried out in ...the member States and inspections increased at EU entry points such as ports. Such activities led to the interception of
X. fastidiosa
-infected coffee plants in consignments originating from Central America. Similarly, the geographic expansion of the olive decline epidemic area of the Apulia region (southern Italy) prompted investigations to identify new host plants. Here we report the interception of three novel bacterial sequence types in Italy, based on multi-locus sequence typing, that cluster with different
X. fastidiosa
subspecies, illustrating the risk of the introduction of additional pathogen genetic diversity into Europe. In the epidemic area of Apulia, new foci as well as host plant species positive with
X. fastidiosa
, including cherry, myrtleleaf and rosemary, were found to be all infected with the same sequence type of this bacterium (ST53, or CoDiRO strain). This work highlights the limited knowledge of
X. fastidiosa
phylogenetic and phenotypic diversity, the risk of novel
X. fastidiosa
introductions via contaminated plant material, and corroborates other studies indicating that the Apulia epidemic emerged from a single introduction of this pathogen into the region.
This study evaluated whether secukinumab treatment for patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis correlates with improvements in symptoms of anxiety and depression. SUPREME was a 24-week, ...phase IIIb, multicentre, prospective study conducted across 50 centres in Italy with an extension period of up to 72 weeks. Assessments used were: Psoriasis Area Sever-ity Index (PASI), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) - Anxiety (HADS-A), and HADS - Depression (HADS-D) scores and Dermatology Quality Life Index (DLQI). Compared with baseline, a significantly greater proportion of patients who reported moderate to severe clinical symptoms of anxiety or depression (HADS-A or HADS-D ≥ 11) were free of moderate to severe symptoms at weeks 16 and 48. The PASI and DLQI scores reduced over time with secukinumab treatment. Psoriasis treatment with secukinumab for 48 weeks resulted in significantly improved skin clearance and a parallel improvement in symptoms of anxiety and depression, assessed by HADS.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
K
S
0,
Λ,
Ξ,
Ω and negative particle yields and transverse mass spectra have been measured at central rapidity in Pb–Pb and p–Pb collisions at 158
A GeV/
c. Yields are studied as a function of the ...number of nucleons participating in the collision
N
part, which is estimated with the Glauber model. From p–Pb to Pb–Pb collisions the particle yields per participant increase substantially. The enhancement is more pronounced for multistrange particles, and exceeds an order of magnitude for the
Ω. For a number of participants,
N
part, greater than 100, however, all yields per participant appear to be constant.
The development of several effective biological drugs for moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis has dramatically changed the lives of patients. Despite the wide use of interleukin (IL) inhibitors, ...limited data are available to date regarding long-term treatment persistence.
This multicenter retrospective real-world study evaluated 5932 treatment courses across 5300 patients, all treated with interleukin inhibitors. Drug survival was expressed by using the Kaplan-Meier estimator for each biological drug at 6, 12, 24, 36 and 48 months. We also stratified by discontinuation associated with primary or secondary ineffectiveness.
In our study, the most prescribed drugs were secukinumab (1412), ixekizumab (1183), and risankizumab (977). After four years of follow-up, risankizumab emerged as the treatment with the highest drug survival overall, as 91.6% of patients were still on treatment. The overall probability of drug survival at four years was comparable for tildrakizumab (83.5%), ixekizumab (82.6%), guselkumab (82.4%) and brodalumab (81.8%). When evaluating only patients who discontinued the treatment because of ineffectiveness, once again risankizumab was the molecule with the highest drug survival at 4 years (93.4%), this time followed by ixekizumab (87%). Our study, in which all IL inhibitors were adequately represented, confirmed a slightly better treatment persistence for IL-23 inhibitors, consistent with other real-world studies.
Our experience showed that IL-23 inhibitors, and risankizumab in particular, had a higher probability of drug survival overall during a 4-year follow-up. Risankizumab and ixekizumab were less likely to be discontinued because of ineffectiveness after four years.
The recent introduction of
Xylella fastidiosa
in Europe and its involvement in the Olive Quick Decline Syndrome (OQDS) in Apulia (Salento, Lecce district, South Italy) led us to investigate the ...biology and transmission ability of the meadow spittlebug,
Philaenus spumarius
, which was recently demonstrated to transmit
X. fastidiosa
to periwinkle plants. Four xylem-sap-feeding insect species were found within and bordering olive orchards across Salento during a survey carried out from October 2013 to December 2014:
P. spumarius
was the most abundant species on non-olive vegetation in olive orchards as well as on olive foliage and was the only species that consistently tested positive for the presence of
X. fastidiosa
using real-time PCR.
P. spumarius
, whose nymphs develop within spittle on weeds during the spring, are likely to move from weeds beneath olive trees to olive canopy during the dry period (May to October 2014). The first
X. fastidiosa
-infective
P. spumarius
were collected in May from olive canopy: all the individuals previously collected on weeds tested negative for the bacterium. Experiments demonstrated that
P. spumarius
transmitted
X. fastidiosa
from infected to uninfected olive plants. Moreover,
P. spumarius
acquired
X. fastidiosa
from several host plant species in the field, with the highest acquisition rate from olive, polygala and acacia. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed bacterial cells resembling
X. fastidiosa
in the foreguts of adult
P. spumarius
. The data presented here are essential to plan an effective IPM strategy and limit further spread of the fastidious bacterium.
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