Polypeptide-grafted macroporous polyHIPE by surface-initiated N-Carboxyanhydride (NCA) polymerization as a platform for bioconjugation

A new class of functional macroporous monoliths from polymerized high internal phase emulsion (polyHIPE) with tunable surface functional groups was developed by direct polypeptide surface grafting. In the first step, amino-functional polyHIPEs were obtained by the addition of 4-vinylbenzyl or 4-vinylbenzylphthalimide to the styrenic emulsion and thermal radical polymerization. The obtained monoliths present the expected open-cell morphology and a high surface area. The incorporated amino group was successfully utilized to initiate the ring-opening polymer- ization of benzyl-L-glutamate N-carboxyanhydride (BLG NCA) and benzyloxycarbonyl-L-lysine (Lys(Z)) NCA, which resulted in a dense homogeneous coating of polypeptides throughout the internal polyHIPE surfaces as confirmed by SEM and FTIR analysis. The amount of polypeptide grafted to the polyHIPE surfaces could be modulated by varying the initial ratio of amino acid NCA to amino-functional polyHIPE. Subsequent removal of the polypeptide protecting groups yielded highly functional polyHIPE-g-poly(glutamic acid) and polyHIPE-g- poly(lysine). Both types of polypeptide-grafted monoliths responded to pH by changes in their hydrohilicity. The possibility to use the high density of function (−COOH or −NH2) for secondary reaction was demonstrated by the successful bioconjugation of enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) and fluorescein isocyanate (FITC) on the polymer 3D-scaffold surface. The amount of eGFP and FITC conjugated to the polypeptide-grafted polyHIPE was significantly higher than to the amino- functional polyHIPE, signifying the advantage of polypeptide grafting to achieve highly functional polyHIPEs

Let’s tweet again? Social networks and literature achievement in high school students

The availability of cheap Wi-Fi internet connections has encouraged schools to adopt Web 2.0 platforms for teaching, with the intention of stimulating students’ academic achievement and participation in school. Moreover, during the recent explosion of the SARS-CoV-2 crisis that forced many countries to close schools (as well as offices and factories), the widespread diffusion of these applications kept school systems going. Despite their widespread use as teaching tools, the effect of adopting Web 2.0 platforms on students’ performance has never been rigorously tested. We fill this gap in the literature by analyzing the impact of using Twitter as a teaching tool on high school students’ literature skills. Based on a large-scale, randomized controlled trial that involved 70 schools and about 1,500 students, we find that using Twitter to teach literature has an overall negative effect on students’ average achievement, reducing standardized test scores by about 25 percent of a standard deviation. The negative effect is stronger on students who usually perform better

Midface Including Le Fort Level Injuries

Le Fort fractures occur at uniform weak areas in the midface often due to blunt impact to the face. Sporting injuries are a common cause of facial trauma; however, use of protective equipment has reduced the number of sports-related injuries. All patients with traumatic injuries should be evaluated using Advanced Trauma Life Support protocol. Le Fort fractures can contribute to airway obstruction, and urgent intubation may be indicated. Surgery is indicated for most displaced Le Fort fractures to restore function and facial harmony. To facilitate reduction, the original occlusive relationship should be restored by placing the patient in MMF

Relationships between technical efficiency and the quality and costs of health care in Italy†

Objectives This paper reports the measurement of technical efficiency of Tuscan Local Health Authorities and its relationship with quality and appropriateness of care. Design First, a bias-corrected measure of technical efficiency was developed using the bootstrap technique applied to data envelopment analysis. Then, correlation analysis was used to investigate the relationships among technical efficiency, quality and appropriateness of care. Setting and Participants These analyses have been applied to the Local Health Authorities of Tuscany Region (Italy), which provide not only hospital inpatient services, but also prevention and primary care. All top managers of Tuscan Local Health Authorities were involved in selection of the inputs and outputs for calculating technical efficiency. Main Outcome Measures The main measures used in this study are volume, quality and appropriateness indicators monitored by the multidimensional performance evaluation system developed in the Tuscany Region. Results On average, Tuscan Local Health Authorities experienced 14(%) of bias-corrected inefficiency in 2007. Correlation analyses showed a significant negative correlation between per capita costs and overall performance. No correlation was found in 2007 between technical efficiency and overall performance or between technical efficiency and per capita costs. Conclusions Technical efficiency cannot be considered as an extensive measure of healthcare performance, but evidence shows that Tuscan Local Health Authorities have room for improvement in productivity levels. Indeed, correlation findings suggest that, to pursue financial sustainability, Local Health Authorities mainly have to improve their performance in terms of quality and appropriateness

Estimating velocity distribution and flood discharge at river bridges using entropy theory – insights from computational fluid dynamics flow fields

Estimating the flow velocity and discharge in rivers is of particular interest for monitoring, modeling, and research purposes. Instruments for measuring water level and surface velocity are generally mounted on bridge decks, and this poses a challenge because the bridge structure, with piers and abutments, can perturb the flow field. The current research aims to investigate the applicability of entropy theory to estimate the velocity distribution and the discharge in the vicinity of river bridges. For this purpose, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is used to obtain three-dimensional flow fields along a stretch of the Paglia River (central Italy), where a historical multi-arch bridge strongly affects flood flows. The input data for the entropy model include the cross-sectional bathymetry and the surface velocity provided by the numerical simulations. A total of 12 samples, including three different flow conditions at four cross-sections, one upstream and three downstream of the bridge, are considered. It is found that the entropy model can be reliably applied upstream of the bridge, also when forced with a single (i.e., the maximum) value of the surface velocity, with errors on total discharge below 13 % in the considered case. By contrast, downstream of the bridge, the wakes generated by the bridge piers strongly affect the velocity distribution, both in the spanwise and in the vertical directions and for very long distances. Here, notwithstanding the complex and multimodal spanwise distribution of flow velocity, the entropy model estimates the discharge with error lower than 8 % if forced with the river-wide distribution of the surface velocity. The present study has important implications for the optimal positioning of sensors and suggests the potential of using CFD modeling and entropy theory jointly to foster greater knowledge of river systems.</p

Using globally available soil moisture indicators for flood modelling in Mediterranean catchments

Abstract. Floods are one of the most dangerous natural hazards in Mediterranean regions. Flood forecasting tools and early warning systems can be very beneficial to reducing flood risk. Event-based rainfall–runoff models are frequently employed for operational flood forecasting purposes because of their simplicity and the reduced number of parameters involved with respect to continuous models. However, the advantages related to the reduced parameterization oppose to the need of a correct initialization of the model, especially in areas characterized by strong climate seasonality. In this case, the use of continuous models could be desirable but it is very problematic in poorly gauged areas where continuous rainfall and temperature data are not available. This paper introduces a Simplified Continuous Rainfall–Runoff model (SCRRM), which uses globally available soil moisture retrievals to identify the initial wetness condition of the catchment, and, only event rainfall data to simulate discharge hydrographs. The model calibration involves only three parameters. For soil moisture, besides in situ data, satellite products from the Advanced SCATterometer (ASCAT) and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth observation (AMSR-E) sensors were employed. Additionally, the ERA-Land reanalysis soil moisture product of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) was used. SCRRM was tested in the small catchment of the Rafina River, 109 km2, located in the eastern Attica region, Greece. Specifically, sixteen recorded rainfall–runoff events were simulated by considering the different indicators for the estimation of the initial soil moisture conditions from in situ, satellite and reanalysis data. By comparing the performance of the different soil moisture products, we conclude that: (i) all global indicators allow for a fairly good reproduction of the selected flood events, providing much better results than those obtained from setting constant initial conditions; (ii) the use of all the indicators yields similar results when compared with a standard continuous simulation approach that, however, is more data demanding; (iii) SCRRM is robust since it shows good performances in validation for a significant flood event that occurred on February 2013 (after calibrating the model for small to medium flood events). Due to the wide diffusion of globally available soil moisture retrievals and the limited number of parameters used, the proposed modelling approach is very suitable for runoff prediction in poorly gauged areas.</jats:p

Effects of anti-IL5 biological treatments on blood IgE levels in severe asthmatic patients: A real-life multicentre study (BIONIGE)

Background: Mepolizumab and benralizumab are clinically effective biological treatments for severe eosinophilic asthmatic patients by hampering eosinophilic inflammation. The effects of these compound on the immunoglobulin (Ig)E T2 component are virtually unknown. Objectives: To evaluate the change in total IgE levels at 4&nbsp;±&nbsp;2&nbsp;months after initiation of the mepolizumab (primary outcome) or benralizumab. When available, the changes of blood inflammatory cell counts, lung function and asthma control test (ACT) were also assessed and correlated with changes in total IgE levels. Methods: Observational, retrospective, multicentre, cohort study. Severe eosinophilic atopic asthmatic patients treated with mepolizumab or benralizumab were included in the analysis. Results: Three-month treatment (on average) with mepolizumab (n&nbsp;=&nbsp;104) or benralizumab (n&nbsp;=&nbsp;82) resulted in significantly higher reduction of blood eosinophil and basophil levels in patients treated with benralizumab compared to mepolizumab. Mepolizumab did not significantly modified the levels of blood total IgE during the study period, whereas benralizumab significantly reduced (−35%, p&nbsp;&lt;&nbsp;0.001) total blood IgE levels. In patients treated with benralizumab the reduction of blood total Ig-E levels correlated with the reduction of blood basophils (but not eosinophils) and weakly with the improvement of asthma control. Conclusion: Benralizumab but not mepolizumab, treatment led to a significant reduction of circulating IgE level. The study provides different and specific mechanisms of action for anti-IL5-pathway treatments

Altimetry for the future: Building on 25 years of progress

In 2018 we celebrated 25 years of development of radar altimetry, and the progress achieved by this methodology in the fields of global and coastal oceanography, hydrology, geodesy and cryospheric sciences. Many symbolic major events have celebrated these developments, e.g., in Venice, Italy, the 15th (2006) and 20th (2012) years of progress and more recently, in 2018, in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, 25 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry. On this latter occasion it was decided to collect contributions of scientists, engineers and managers involved in the worldwide altimetry community to depict the state of altimetry and propose recommendations for the altimetry of the future. This paper summarizes contributions and recommendations that were collected and provides guidance for future mission design, research activities, and sustainable operational radar altimetry data exploitation. Recommendations provided are fundamental for optimizing further scientific and operational advances of oceanographic observations by altimetry, including requirements for spatial and temporal resolution of altimetric measurements, their accuracy and continuity. There are also new challenges and new openings mentioned in the paper that are particularly crucial for observations at higher latitudes, for coastal oceanography, for cryospheric studies and for hydrology. The paper starts with a general introduction followed by a section on Earth System Science including Ocean Dynamics, Sea Level, the Coastal Ocean, Hydrology, the Cryosphere and Polar Oceans and the “Green” Ocean, extending the frontier from biogeochemistry to marine ecology. Applications are described in a subsequent section, which covers Operational Oceanography, Weather, Hurricane Wave and Wind Forecasting, Climate projection. Instruments’ development and satellite missions’ evolutions are described in a fourth section. A fifth section covers the key observations that altimeters provide and their potential complements, from other Earth observation measurements to in situ data. Section 6 identifies the data and methods and provides some accuracy and resolution requirements for the wet tropospheric correction, the orbit and other geodetic requirements, the Mean Sea Surface, Geoid and Mean Dynamic Topography, Calibration and Validation, data accuracy, data access and handling (including the DUACS system). Section 7 brings a transversal view on scales, integration, artificial intelligence, and capacity building (education and training). Section 8 reviews the programmatic issues followed by a conclusion

Motivos da prática de dança de salão nas aulas de educação física escolar

O estudo de corte transversal analisou os motivos da prática da dança de salão nas aulas de Educação Física escolar de escolas particulares, relacionando-os com o gênero, seu tempo de prática e participação em eventos de dança de salão. Obteve-se uma amostra de 279 alunos com idade de 15,5 ± 1,0 anos, matriculados nas aulas de dança de salão como Educação Física escolar. Aplicou-se o questionário de motivação para as atividades desportivas - QMAD, adaptado de SERPA e FRIAS (1990) e SERPA (1991). Analisou-se os dados através da estatística descritiva e inferencial, com nível de significância de 95%. Foram encontradas associações significativas entre os motivos e gêneros (r = 0,285; - 0,172); tempo de prática (r = 0,174) e frequência em eventos (r = 0,122; - 0,156). A dança de salão oferece em sua prática uma ferramenta de inúmeras possibilidades, onde cada um de seus praticantes procura preencher as suas próprias necessidades. De acordo com os resultados levantados percebe-se que os alunos estão motivados com a prática de dança de salão na escola havendo diferenças entre o gênero, o tempo de prática e a frequência nos eventos. Diante disto sugere-se a criação de propostas metodológicas condizentes com os principais motivos dos alunos nas aulas de dança de salão dentro do ambiente da Educação Física escolar.The transversal study analyzed the reasons for the practice of ballroom dance in the curricular physical activity in private schools, relating them to the gender, its practice time and participation in ballroom dance events. The study was composed of 279 students at the age of 15.5 ± 1.0, enrolled in ballroom dance as part of regular physical education. The Sport Motivation Questionnaire - SMQ, adapted from SERPA and FRIAS (1990), SERPA (1992) was used. The descriptive and inferential statistics were used with a 95% significance level. Significant associations were found between reasons and the genders (r = 0.285; - 0.172); practice time (r = 0.174) and event frequency (r = 0.122; - 0.156). The ballroom dance offers in its practice a tool of countless possibilities, in which each of its participants search to fulfil their own necessities. According to the risen results it is noticeable that students are motivated with the practice of ballroom dance in schools presenting differences in gender, practice time, and event attendance. Then, it is suggested the creation of methodological proposals coherent to the main goals of the students of ballroom dance within the regular physical education environment in schools