In Italy, in 2013, a new school curriculum with a sport character was established in high schools, called Sports High School (SHS). The aims of this study were: (1) to assess the fitness levels of ...SHS students who, respecting all the safety rules to limit the spread of COVID-19, practiced physical education (PE) at school with continuity for almost all of 2021, and to compare them with Traditional High School (THS) students; (2) to evaluate as the SHS may have influenced the fitness levels in adolescents.
This is a case-control study in which thirty participants were enrolled (SHS:
= 15; THS:
= 15). To assess the fitness levels, the following tests were administered: the Static Baropodometric and Stabilometric Analyses, the Counter Movement Jump (CMJ), and the Handgrip test. All these tests were administered when the non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) for COVID-19 allowed the resumption of PE lessons (T0) and 2 months after their resumption (T1).
Unpaired
-test between SHS (T0) vs. THS (T0) showed significant differences between: Handgrip test Dx and Handgrip test Sx (both
< 0.001), Surface Sx foot and Surface Dx foot (both
< 0.05), and CMJ (
< 0.001). These results were also confirmed in T1. The performance analysis between T0 and T1 of both SHS and THS showed improvements in SHS: Handgrip test Dx (
< 0.05;
= 0.57), Handgrip test Sx (
< 0.01;
= 0.87), and CMJ (
< 0.05;
= 0.59). Pearson's analysis of the results of the tests showed significant strong correlations between: Handgrip test Dx and Handgrip test Sx (
= 0.959;
< 0.001), Handgrip test Dx and CMJ (
= 0.881;
< 0.001), Handgrip test Sx and CMJ (
= 0.893;
< 0.001). The same analysis showed significant but moderate correlations between: Surface foot Sx and CMJ (
= 0.489;
< 0.01), Surface foot Sx and y-mean (
= 0.485;
< 0.01), Surface foot Dx and CMJ (
= 0.444;
< 0.05).
This study is in agreement with the literature showing that the quarantine period and the NPIs for COVID-19 caused a decrease in fitness levels in adolescents. Our results showed that students of SHS recorded higher strength performance both in the Handgrip test and in the CMJ.
We present associations between neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) and brain morphology in a large sample of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease with dementia (AD ...dementia). Several studies assessed NPS factor structure in MCI and AD dementia, but we know of no study that tested for associations between NPS factors and brain morphology. The use of factor scores increases parsimony and power. For transparency, we performed an additional analysis with selected Neuropsychiatric Inventory – Questionnaire (NPI-Q) items. Including regional cortical thickness, cortical and subcortical volumes, we examined associations between NPS and brain morphology across the whole brain in an unbiased fashion. We reported both statistical significance and effect sizes, using linear models adjusted for multiple comparisons by false discovery rate (FDR). Moreover, we included an interaction term for diagnosis and could thereby compare associations of NPS and brain morphology between MCI and AD dementia. We found an association between the factor elation and thicker right anterior cingulate cortex across MCI and AD dementia. Associations between the factors depression to thickness of the banks of the left superior temporal sulcus and psychosis to the left post-central volume depended on diagnosis: in MCI these associations were positive, in AD dementia negative. Our findings indicate that NPS in MCI and AD dementia are not exclusively associated with atrophy and support previous findings of associations between NPS and mainly frontotemporal brain structures.
As findings on the neuropathological and behavioral components of Alzheimer's disease (AD) continue to accrue, converging evidence suggests that macroscale brain functional disruptions may mediate ...their association. Recent developments on theoretical neuroscience indicate that instantaneous patterns of brain connectivity and metastability may be a key mechanism in neural communication underlying cognitive performance. However, the potential significance of these patterns across the AD spectrum remains virtually unexplored. We assessed the clinical sensitivity of static and dynamic functional brain disruptions across the AD spectrum using resting-state fMRI in a sample consisting of AD patients (n = 80) and subjects with either mild (n = 44) or subjective (n = 26) cognitive impairment (MCI, SCI). Spatial maps constituting the nodes in the functional brain network and their associated time-series were estimated using spatial group independent component analysis and dual regression, and whole-brain oscillatory activity was analyzed both globally (metastability) and locally (static and dynamic connectivity). Instantaneous phase metrics showed functional coupling alterations in AD compared to MCI and SCI, both static (putamen, dorsal and default-mode) and dynamic (temporal, frontal-superior and default-mode), along with decreased global metastability. The results suggest that brains of AD patients display altered oscillatory patterns, in agreement with theoretical premises on cognitive dynamics.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, large-scale genomic sequencing has immediately pointed out that SARS-CoV-2 has rapidly mutated during the course of the pandemic, resulting in the ...emergence of variants with a public health impact. In this context, strictly monitoring the circulating strains via NGS has proven to be crucial for the early identification of new emerging variants and the study of the genomic evolution and transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Following national and international guidelines, the Lazio region has created a sequencing laboratory network (WGSnet-Lazio) that works in synergy with the reference center for epidemiological surveillance (SERESMI) to monitor the circulation of SARS-CoV-2. Sequencing was carried out with the aims of characterizing outbreak transmission dynamics, performing the genomic analysis of viruses infecting specific categories of patients (i.e., immune-depressed, travelers, and people with severe symptoms) and randomly monitoring variant circulation. Here we report data emerging from sequencing activities carried out by WGSnet-Lazio (from February 2020 to October 2022) linked with epidemiological data to correlate the circulation of variants with the clinical and demographic characteristics of patients. The model of the sequencing network developed in the Lazio region proved to be a useful tool for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance and to support public health measures for epidemic containment.
Introduction: The article describes the project “Health path: walking together against diabetes, overweight and obesity” that ASUGI proposed in 2016.
Methods: In this project the diabetologist, nurse ...and physiotherapist working in local health services collaborate together with patients’ associations to the realization of the project. The initiative is addressed at people living in the territory of the Local District no. 1 of Trieste, aged between 18 and 65 years affected by one or more of the following diseases: diabetes mellitus, overweight/obesity, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In the project, initial and final individual physiotherapeutic evaluations were carried out, including the evaluation of engagement with the PHE-S®.
Results and Conclusions: From 2016 to the present day, the project has aimed to sensitize people in the maintenance of healthy lifestyles and it was the occasion to make all the healthcare professionals involved co-responsible in encouraging therapeutic adherence and engagement thanks to training activities and the establishment of a cooperative relationship.
Introduction: The article describes the project “Health path: walking together against diabetes, overweight and obesity” that ASUGI proposed in 2016. Methods: In this project the diabetologist, nurse ...and physiotherapist working in local health services collaborate together with patients’ associations to the realization of the project. The initiative is addressed at people living in the territory of the Local District no. 1 of Trieste, aged between 18 and 65 years affected by one or more of the following diseases: diabetes mellitus, overweight/obesity, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In the project, initial and final individual physiotherapeutic evaluations were carried out, including the evaluation of engagement with the PHE-S®. Results and Conclusions: From 2016 to the present day, the project has aimed to sensitize people in the maintenance of healthy lifestyles and it was the occasion to make all the healthcare professionals involved co-responsible in encouraging therapeutic adherence and engagement thanks to training activities and the establishment of a cooperative relationship.
Reconfiguration of chemical sensors, intended as the capacity of the sensor to adapt to novel operational scenarios, e.g., new target analytes, is potentially game changing and would enable rapid and ...cost-effective reaction to dynamic changes occurring at healthcare, environmental, and industrial levels. Yet, it is still a challenge, and rare examples of sensor reconfiguration have been reported to date. Here, we report on a reconfigurable label-free optical sensor leveraging the versatile immobilization of metal ions through a chelating agent on a nanostructured porous silica (PSiO2) optical transducer for the detection of different biomolecules. First, we show the reversible grafting of different metal ions on the PSiO2 surface, namely, Ni2+, Cu2+, Zn2+, and Fe3+, which can mediate the interaction with different biomolecules and be switched under mild conditions. Then, we demonstrate reconfiguration of the sensor at two levels: 1) switching of the metal ions on the PSiO2 surface from Cu2+ to Zn2+ and testing the ability of Cu2+-functionalized and Zn2+-reconfigured devices for the sensing of the dipeptide carnosine (CAR), leveraging the well-known chelating ability of CAR toward divalent metal ions; and 2) reconfiguration of the Cu2+-functionalized PSiO2 sensor for a different target analyte, namely, the nucleotide adenosine triphosphate (ATP), switching Cu2+ with Fe3+ ions to exploit the interaction with ATP through phosphate groups. The Cu2+-functionalized and Zn2+-reconfigured sensors show effective sensing performance in CAR detection, also evaluated in tissue samples from murine brain, and so does the Fe3+-reconfigured sensor toward ATP, thus demonstrating effective reconfiguration of the sensor with the proposed surface chemistry.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a debilitating age-related neurodegenerative disorder. Accurate identification of individuals at risk is complicated as AD shares cognitive and brain features with aging. ...We applied linked independent component analysis (LICA) on three complementary measures of gray matter structure: cortical thickness, area and gray matter density of 137 AD, 78 mild (MCI) and 38 subjective cognitive impairment patients, and 355 healthy adults aged 18–78 years to identify dissociable multivariate morphological patterns sensitive to age and diagnosis. Using the lasso classifier, we performed group classification and prediction of cognition and age at different age ranges to assess the sensitivity and diagnostic accuracy of the LICA patterns in relation to AD, as well as early and late healthy aging. Three components showed high sensitivity to the diagnosis and cognitive status of AD, with different relationships with age: one reflected an anterior-posterior gradient in thickness and gray matter density and was uniquely related to diagnosis, whereas the other two, reflecting widespread cortical thickness and medial temporal lobe volume, respectively, also correlated significantly with age. Repeating the LICA decomposition and between-subject analysis on ADNI data, including 186 AD, 395 MCI and 220 age-matched healthy controls, revealed largely consistent brain patterns and clinical associations across samples. Classification results showed that multivariate LICA-derived brain characteristics could be used to predict AD and age with high accuracy (area under ROC curve up to 0.93 for classification of AD from controls). Comparison between classifiers based on feature ranking and feature selection suggests both common and unique feature sets implicated in AD and aging, and provides evidence of distinct age-related differences in early compared to late aging.
•Linked ICA identifies morphological patterns sensitive to age and AD diagnosis.•AD and aging shared a common global thickness and gray matter density pattern.•Two regional brain patterns showed distinct and specific AD characteristics.•Classification revealed differences between early and late aging, and AD.•Results replicated in an independent sample (ADNI).
Zika virus (ZIKV), a mosquito-borne flavivirus, causes devastating congenital birth defects. We isolated a human monoclonal antibody (mAb), ZKA190, that potently cross-neutralizes multi-lineage ZIKV ...strains. ZKA190 is highly effective in vivo in preventing morbidity and mortality of ZIKV-infected mice. NMR and cryo-electron microscopy show its binding to an exposed epitope on DIII of the E protein. ZKA190 Fab binds all 180 E protein copies, altering the virus quaternary arrangement and surface curvature. However, ZIKV escape mutants emerged in vitro and in vivo in the presence of ZKA190, as well as of other neutralizing mAbs. To counter this problem, we developed a bispecific antibody (FIT-1) comprising ZKA190 and a second mAb specific for DII of E protein. In addition to retaining high in vitro and in vivo potencies, FIT-1 robustly prevented viral escape, warranting its development as a ZIKV immunotherapy.
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•ZKA190 is a potent ZIKV neutralizing mAb targeting DIII of the E protein•ZKA190 binds to all 180 E proteins on ZIKV virion distorting quaternary structure•Zika virus escapes from ZKA190 as well as DII-specific neutralizing antibodies•A ZKA190-based DII-DIII bispecific antibody prevents ZIKV escape and protects animals
A bispecific antibody comprising human monoclonal antibodies to distinct sites on the E protein of Zika virus efficiently neutralizes multiple strains, prevents viral escape and demonstrates in vivo efficacy.
Background. The aim of this observational study is to assess pre- and postoperative retinochoroidal vascular changes in patients undergoing epiretinal macular membrane (ERM) surgery by using optical ...coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). Materials and Methods. 23 eyes affected by ERM and those which underwent phacovitrectomy associated with ERM peeling were enrolled. They were evaluated using structural OCT and OCTA before surgery and at 1, 3, and 6 months postoperatively. Results. We found a statistically significant (p < 0.05) increase in the superficial capillary plexus vessel density (VD) from baseline to the 6-month follow-up. We observed a large increase in both the perfusion density (PD) and the VD of the deep capillary plexus between baseline and the 6-month follow-up (p < 0.001). A significant decrease in the VD and PD of the choriocapillaris (CC) from baseline to the 1st month and a significant increase in CC perfusion density at the 6-month follow-up compared to the preoperative value were revealed. The FAZ area and perimeter after surgery significantly increased during the follow-up (p < 0.001) at baseline retinal and choroidal plexi with a lower PD or VD correlated with worse visual acuity (p < 0.05 for all plexi). At baseline and at the 1-month follow-up, a significant correlation was found with the FAZ area and the FAZ perimeter: a smaller FAZ area or a smaller FAZ perimeter was correlated to a lower visual acuity. Before surgery, negative correlations (p < 0.05) were found between the Govetto ERM stages and perfusion density of the SCP and the DCP and between the Govetto stages and vessel density of the DCP. Conclusions. In our study, OCTA detected vascular alterations induced by the presence of the ERM, allowing several correlations with functional data. In these patients, OCTA may be useful to add new potential surgical prognostic factors.
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