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While several efforts have been made to control the epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Italy, differences between and within regions have made it difficult to plan the phase two management after the national lockdown. Here, we propose a simple and immediate clustering approach to categorize Italian regions working on the prevalence and trend of SARS-CoV-2 positive cases prior to the start of phase two on 4 May 2020. Applying both hierarchical and k-means clustering, we identified three regional groups regions in cluster 1 exhibited higher prevalence and the highest trend of SARS-CoV-2 positive cases; those classified into cluster 2 constituted an intermediate group; those in cluster 3 were regions with a lower prevalence and the lowest trend of SARS-CoV-2 positive cases. At the provincial level, we used a similar approach but working on the prevalence and trend of the total SARS-CoV-2 cases. Notably, provinces in cluster 1 exhibited the highest prevalence and trend of SARS-CoV-2 cases. Provinces in clusters 2 and 3, instead, showed a median prevalence of approximately 11 cases per 10,000 residents. However, provinces in cluster 3 were those with the lowest trend of cases. K-means clustering yielded to an alternative cluster solution in terms of the prevalence and trend of SARS-CoV-2 cases. Our study described a simple and immediate approach to monitor the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic at the regional and provincial level. These findings, at present, offered a snapshot of the epidemic, which could be helpful to outline the hierarchy of needs at the subnational level. However, the integration of our approach with further indicators and characteristics could improve our findings, also allowing the application to different contexts and with additional aims.Global pandemic management represents a serious issue for health systems. In some cases, repurposing of existing medications might help find compounds that have the unexpected potential to combat microorganisms. In the same way, changing cell-drug interaction by nanotechnology could represent an innovative strategy to fight infectious diseases. Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the most alarming worldwide infectious diseases and there is an urgent need for new drugs and treatments, particularly for the emergence and spread of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) strains. New nanotechnologies based on carbon nanomaterials are now being considered to improve anti-TB treatments, and graphene oxide (GO) showed interesting properties as an anti-TB drug. GO, which preferentially accumulates in the lungs and is degraded by macrophagic peroxidases, can trap Mycobacterium smegmatis and Mtb in a dose-dependent manner, reducing the entry of bacilli into macrophages. In this paper, combinations of isoniazid (INH), amikacin (AMK) and linezolid (LZD) and GO anti-mycobacterial properties were evaluated against Mtb H37Rv by using a checkerboard assay or an in vitro infection model. Different GO effects have been observed when incubated with INH, AMK or LZD. Whereas the INH and AMK anti-mycobacterial activities were blocked by GO co-administration, the LZD bactericidal effect increased in combination with GO. GO-LZD significantly reduced extracellular mycobacteria during infection and was able to kill internalized bacilli. GO-LZD co-administration is potentially a new promising anti-TB treatment at the forefront in fighting emerging antibiotic-resistant Mtb strains where LZD administration is suggested. PTX inhibitor This innovative pharmacological approach may lead to reduced treatment periods and decreased adverse effects. More importantly, we demonstrate how nanomaterials-drugs combinations can represent a possible strategy to quickly design drugs for pandemics treatment.Inertial measurement units (IMUs) are commonly used for localization or movement tracking in pervasive healthcare-related studies, and gait analysis is one of the most often studied topics using IMUs. The increasing variety of commercially available IMU devices offers convenience by combining the sensor modalities and simplifies the data collection procedures. However, selecting the most suitable IMU device for a certain use case is increasingly challenging. In this study, guidelines for IMU selection are proposed. In particular, seven IMUs were compared in terms of their specifications, data collection procedures, and raw data quality. link2 Data collected from the IMUs were then analyzed by a gait analysis algorithm. The difference in accuracy of the calculated gait parameters between the IMUs could be used to retrace the issues in raw data, such as acceleration range or sensor calibration. Based on our algorithm, we were able to identify the best-suited IMUs for our needs. This study provides an overview of how to select the IMUs based on the area of study with concrete examples, and gives insights into the features of seven commercial IMUs using real data.Depression remains an underdiagnosed comorbidity which significantly decreases the quality of life in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients. We aimed to investigate the prevalence of depression in a cohort of ALS patients with more than one year of disease evolution. A total of 50 ALS patients were evaluated with the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) and cognition, using the Mini-Cog Standardized Instrument (MCSI). The clinical disability was evaluated using the ALS Functional Rating Scale (ALSFRS). The prevalence of depression was 42.8%. A lower BDI-II score was significantly correlated with a higher education level, the spouse as a caregiver, spiritual devotion, and employment status (p less then 0.05). A multiple linear regression analysis between the BDI-II score as the dependent variable and various independent variables such as spirituality, caregiver status, educational level, and occupational status revealed that only the type of caregiver (spouse or parent/child) significantly affected the BDI-II total score (p = 0.006). The functional disability significantly correlated with loss of appetite and loss of libido (p less then 0.001). A high education, spiritual devotion, high ALSFRS, and the presence of the spouse as the caregiver were associated with the absence of depression.

The aim of this study was to comprehend how people with diabetes view their experiences of the possible barriers and facilitators in inpatient care for type 1 diabetes from non-specialized nurses.

An interpretative phenomenology analysis (IPA) was conducted.

The sample consisted of people with type 1 diabetes 1 (

= 24) who use the services of the state hospitals in Cyprus. The data were collected in two phases firstly, focus groups with people with diabetes (

= 2) were conducted and analysed, and then individual semi-structured interviews with people with diabetes (

= 12) were conducted.

It is evident from the findings that people with diabetes experienced several barriers in diabetes inpatient care, which is concerning since this can have adverse effects on patients' outcomes. No facilitators were reported.

Significant results were found in relation to the barriers to diabetes inpatient care. Crucially, the findings demonstrate that all these factors can negatively affect the quality of care of patients with diabetes, and most of these factors are related not only to diabetes care but also generally to all patients who receive inpatient care. Interestingly, no participant reported any facilitators to their care, which further affected the negative perceptions of the care received.

Significant results were found in relation to the barriers to diabetes inpatient care. Crucially, the findings demonstrate that all these factors can negatively affect the quality of care of patients with diabetes, and most of these factors are related not only to diabetes care but also generally to all patients who receive inpatient care. Interestingly, no participant reported any facilitators to their care, which further affected the negative perceptions of the care received.Porous V2O5/TiO2 nanoheterostructure films with different atomic ratios of Ti/V (41, 21, 11, and 12) were synthesized by a sparking method for the first time. The sparking method, which is a simple and cost-effective process, can synthesize highly porous and composite films in one step. Field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) images revealed the porosity morphology of all prepared samples. V2O5/TiO2 nanoheterostructure films were confirmed by Raman spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The secondary particle size and band gap of the samples were highly correlated to the V2O5 proportion, resulting in enhanced visible-light absorbance. link3 V2O5/TiO2 nanoheterostructure films at an atomic ratio of 11 showed the highest photocatalytic performance, which improved the degradation rate up to 24% compared to pure TiO2 film. It is believed that the formed nanoheterostructure and greater portion of V4+ ions are reflected by this ratio.Despite the rapid growth in research and R&D expenditures, the translation of research into practice is limited. One approach to increase the translation and utilization of research is practice based research networks. With the aim of strengthening evidence-based practice (EBP) within occupational health services in Sweden (OH-Services), a practice-based research network (PBRN-OSH) was developed. The PBRN-OSH includes researchers and representatives from end-users. This paper reports on the development, outputs and lessons learned in the PBRN-OSH. The PBRN-OSH resulted in several practice-based research projects as well as different measures to ensure EBP in OSH such as the governmentally sanctioned national guidelines for the OH-services. Moreover, results show that the competence in EBP increased among practitioners at the OH-services. Conducting research in a PBRN is more resource demanding; however, this does not imply that it is less cost effective. To succeed in increasing the utility of research findings via PBRN, resources must be invested into an infrastructure that supports collaboration in the PBRN, including costs for a variety of means of dissemination. Further, translation activities need to be included in academic career paths and reward systems if a major improvement in the impact and return of investments from research is to be expected.Most studies on genetic engineering technologies for cancer immunotherapy based on allogeneic donors have focused on adaptive immunity. However, the main limitation of such approaches is that they can lead to severe graft-versus-host disease (GvHD). An alternative approach would bolster innate immunity by relying on the natural tropism of some subsets of the innate immune system, such as γδ T and natural killer (NK) cells, for the tumor microenvironment and their ability to kill in a major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-independent manner. γδ T and NK cells have the unique ability to bridge innate and adaptive immunity while responding to a broad range of tumors. Considering these properties, γδ T and NK cells represent ideal sources for developing allogeneic cell therapies. Recently, significant efforts have been made to exploit the intrinsic anti-tumor capacity of these cells for treating hematologic and solid malignancies using genetic engineering approaches such as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and T cell receptor (TCR).