27 research outputs found
Detection of vesivirus in minks (Neovison vison), Italy 2021
No full textVesiviruses are important animal pathogens with a broad host range, and they have also been involved in accidental contamination of cells used for the production of drugs for rare and life-threatening human diseases. A vesivirus (family Caliciviridae) was detected in minks (Neovison vison) with respiratory and neurological signs, during syndromic surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 conducted in Italy. The complete genome (8,397 nucleotides in length) of the vesivirus strain ITA/2021/mink/TE (OR130287) was obtained by combining NGS approach with 5' and 3' RACE protocols. The virus was seemingly more related (95.9-97.2% nt identity in the partial RNA-dependent RNA polymerase) to American vesivirus isolates 9/1980/US, 12/1980/US, and 20/1980/US dating back to the early 1980s than to recent mink strains. These results highlight the importance of gathering information on the virome of animals
Introducing Static Analysis in a Mature Codebase
No full textAbstract This paper tells the story of how our organization introduced static analysis into its software development process. The static analysis process automatically finds bugs, assigns them to the engineer that most likely introduced the bug, and then automatically verifies the fix. This project began two years ago, when we started recording the root cause of bugs that were fixed. Once we had several hundred bugs analyzed, we found that the largest number of bugs was caused by coding errors. The good news, there are many best practices in industry to improve code quality. One survey of software quality practices (Jones 2011) shows that three practices, taken together, are capable of removing 97% of the defects. Those three practices are code review, static analysis, and unit testing. Our organization already had healthy processes for code review and unit testing, but we had spotty history with static analysis. So, we took a fresh look at static analysis. When engineering the process for static analysis, we took care to avoid some of the issues of the past; namely false positives, excessive effort required to manage the bug list (triage false positives, manage assignments, etc.), and the demotivation of analyzing a large backlog of defects. When we designed the new process, we decided to focus on automating the bug identification, assignment, and retest processes -eliminating a lot of the effort that got in the way of previous attempts. We also focused on keeping new code clean, which is much easier to justify than clearing old bugs from the backlog. The process also was designed to provide fast feedback, directly to the developer that created the bug. Paying attention to new bugs has resulted in high levels of adoption by the developers, as compared to focus on backlog bugs. The engineers are fixing the new bugs that come in, plus have made a significant dent in the backlog. Biography John Ruberto has been developing software in a variety of roles for over 25 years. Currently, he is the Quality Leader for QuickBooks Online, a web application that helps small business owners manage their finances. John has a
Evaluation of Quantitative PCR (qPCR) <i>Paenibacillus larvae</i> Targeted Assays and Definition of Optimal Conditions for Its Detection/Quantification in Honey and Hive Debris
No full textThe application of quantitative PCR (qPCR) as a routine method to detect and enumerate Paenibacillus larvae in honey and hive debris could greatly speed up the estimation of prevalence and outbreak risk of the American foulbrood (AFB) disease of Apis mellifera. However, none of the qPCR tests described so far has been officially proposed as a standard procedure for P. larvae detection and enumeration for surveillance purposes. Therefore, in this study, inclusivity, exclusivity and sensitivity of detection of P. larvae spores directly in samples of honey and hive debris were re-evaluated for the previously published qPCR methods. To this aim, recently acquired P. larvae sequence data were considered to assess inclusivity in silico and more appropriate non-target species were used to verify exclusivity experimentally. This led to the modification of a previously described method by shortening the forward primer, designing a new reverse primer and using more stringent amplification conditions. The new test allowed the detection of P. larvae spores in honey and hive debris down to 1 CFU/g. The qPCR test optimized in this study proved suitable for quantification and also for identification of field P. larvae strains and real contaminated samples. Therefore, it is proposed for reliable detection and quantification of P. larvae in honey and hive debris, thus circumventing the disadvantages of late AFB diagnosis based on clinical symptoms and possible underestimation of spore numbers that is the main drawback of culture-dependent procedures
A Western single-center experience with endoscopic submucosal dissection for early gastrointestinal cancers
No full text06/03/14 meb. Accepted author manuscript, OK to add.Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection (ESD) has gained worldwide acceptance as a treatment for Early Gastrointestinal Cancers (EGICs). However, the management of these tumors in the Western world is still mainly surgical.
Our aim was to evaluate the safety and feasibility of ESD in a European center.
Based on the knowledge transferred by one of the most experienced Japanese Institutions, we conducted a pilot study on 25 consecutive patients with EGICs located in the esophagus (n=3), stomach (n=7), duodenum (n=1) and colon (n=14) at our tertiary center over a 2-year-period. Main outcome measurements were complete (R0), as were en bloc resection and management of complications.
R0 and en bloc resection rates were 100% and 84% respectively. There were 3 bleeding and 5 perforation cases. With a median follow-up of 15 months, 2 recurrences were observed.
ESD for early esophageal and gastric cancers is feasible and effective while colonic ESD requires more expertise
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The association between heart rate behavior and gait performance: The moderating effect of frailty
No full textIntroduction Research suggests that frailty not only influence individual systems, but also it affects the interconnection between them. However, no study exists to show how the interplay between cardiovascular and motor performance is compromised with frailty. Aim To investigate the effect of frailty on the association between heart rate (HR) dynamics and gait performance. Methods Eighty-five older adults (≥65 years and able to walk 9.14 meters) were recruited (October 2016-March 2018) and categorized into 26 non-frail (age = 78.65±7.46 years) and 59 pre-frail/frail individuals (age = 81.01±8.17) based on the Fried frailty phenotype. Participants performed gait tasks while equipped with a wearable electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor attached to the chest, as well as wearable gyroscopes for gait assessment. HR dynamic parameters were extracted, including time to peak HR and percentage increase in HR in response to walking. Using the gyroscope sensors gait parameters were recorded including stride length, stride velocity, mean swing velocity, and double support. Results Among the pre-frail/frail group, time to peak HR was significantly correlated with all gait parameters (p0.45, r = 0.03-0.15). The moderation analysis of time to peak HR, demonstrated a significant interaction effect of HR dynamics and frailty status on walking velocity (p0.10). Conclusions Current findings, for the first time, suggest that a compromised motor and cardiac autonomic interaction exist among pre-frail/frail older adults; an impaired HR performance (i.e., slower increase of HR in response to stressors) may lead to a slower walking performance. Assessing physical performance and its corresponding HR behavior should be studied as a tool for frailty screening and providing insights about the underlying cardiovascular-related mechanism leading to physical frailty. © 2022 Ruberto et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]
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Itinerant narratives: travel, identity and literary form in Abdulrazak Gurnah’s fiction
No full textThis study offers the first full-length single-author analysis of the fictional work of Abdulrazak Gurnah. Born in Zanzibar in 1948 and relocated to England at the age of eighteen, Gurnah has published seven novels so far, spanning from 1987 to 2005. A combination of lesser known works and critically acclaimed novels such as the Booker Prize shortlisted Paradise (1994), Gurnah’s oeuvre provides a fruitful terrain for an investigation of the complex dynamics by which the tropes of travel and identity intersect with the deployment and transformation of various literary forms. While there is a small but growing number of critical articles and book chapters discussing Gurnah’s work, there has been no in depth analysis of his fiction to date. Contrary to most of the work published on him so far, this study attempts to follow the development of Gurnah’s aesthetic by demonstrating the ways it is informed by his experience of exile and by the recent history of Zanzibar and East Africa. Furthermore, it will also consider how his experience as an academic and as a renowned critic in the field of postcolonial literature might also account for the ways in which his fiction often deals with the recovery of suppressed voices and histories. Drawing on a number of different cultural theorists such as Edward Said, James Clifford, and Caren Kaplan as well as on Gurnah’s critical work, this study provides a focussed approach to the thematics of dislocation and subject formation which are central to Gurnah’s literary oeuvre. The insistence on a historically oriented approach eschews a homogenisation of the experience of exile and allows the identification of specific traits characterising his works. The development of the notion of 'itinerancy', in conjunction with the expansion of anthropologist Victor Turner’s concept of liminality, will help to explicate the emphasis in Gurnah’s texts on threshold subjects and sites which question fixed notions of identity, citizenship and history. The intertwined concepts of itinerancy and liminality will also help to address the issue of literary form, to understand the ways in which the usage of specific literary genres or narratives adopted by Gurnah in his novels is connected to the development of his particular aesthetic. The bildungsroman, pilgrimage narrative, homecoming journey and historiographic metafiction are in turn deployed and transformed by the writer to accommodate the representation of different forms of displacement as well as the recounting of alternative versions of the past. The chapters making up this thesis take Gurnah’s novels in chronological order and demonstrate the need to consider this relatively neglected writer as a key figure in contemporary literature
The relationship between literature and law: A study of Latin American texts
No full textThere is a long tradition of interrelationships between Literature and Law. Classical tragedy has provided a forum in Western philosophy for the discussion of political theory. The idea of natural law is developed in Antigone by Sophocles. A similar theme is explored in Jorge Andrade\u27s Pedreira das Almas. Applying Hegel\u27s theory of tragedy, natural law and positive law are seen as antithetical values in the play, which in the end produce a synthesis. Agustin Cuzzani\u27s Una libra de carne approaches the legal question from an expressionistic and Brechtian frame of reference. It presents the trial of an employee who, under financial duress, repeats the pact made in Shakespeare\u27s The Merchant of Venice. El Gigante Amapolas by Juan Bautista Alberdi is a political farce relating to Rousseau\u27 s concept of the social contract. Both literary critics and law professors have evaluated the influence of literary theory on the interpretation of legal texts. Sanford Levinson examines the implications of the running debate among literary theorists about the conditions of shared meaning. However, this dissertation emphasizes the main differences between utterances in Literature and Law by applying the speech act theory. Machado de Assis\u27s Memorias Postumas de Bras Cubas illustrates many of these differences. The idea of a contract is applied to the reading of literary texts, as an implicit agreement between the textualized author and the reader. The study of the short story Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote by Jorge Luis Borges explains the process of the contract
Un modello di riprogettazione del percorso nascita: strumenti di empowerment delle donne e di supporto decisionale clinico e manageriale
No full text2020 - 2021Pregnancy and childbirth symbolize a period of decisions during which the woman feels
the need to express her needs and to receive correct information leading to conscious
choices.
Over the years the theme of the birth path has become relevant due to the increase in the
number of parts carried out by caesarean section, a surgical practice capable of
compromising the health of women and children if performed without real medical needs
and with a strong impact on the health system from an organizational, social, clinical and
economic point of view.
In many territorial contexts the choice of opting for surgery rather than favouring natural
childbirth is conditioned not so much by the presence of real differences in the health
status of the population, as many factors of different nature that lead to decisions
increasingly inappropriate from the clinical and organizational point of view.
Focusing the interest on the birth path is the most appropriate way to study a phenomenon
on which it is necessary to intervene with an integrated approach that connects the
different moments of the path, the actors who are part of it, the modalities with which the
services are delivered, the criticalities that are found and the hypotheses of participation.
The following study aims to support the formulation of clinical and managerial decisions
appropriate to the mode of childbirth, promote a conscious and rational use of the practice
of Caesarean section and realize an effective process of patient empowerment.
On the basis of data and information obtained from the main sources of information
relating to the birth event, a dataset has been built in which clinical and extra-clinical
variables have been reported clinics that correlate with the modalities of childbirth in
order to carry out a descriptive study on the multidimensional nature of the phenomenon.
The project activity included a cognitive investigation of the organizational and
procedural aspects applied at the two units under investigation, the Departments of
Gynecology and Obstetrics of the Clinica Mediterranea S.p.A. of Naples and the Hospital
Company- University of San Giovanni di Dio and Ruggi d'Aragona of Salerno.
The study has interesting practical and policy implications. First, it identifies the aspects
of the organizational process useful for the construction of an integrated care path that
promotes the synergy between hospital and territory, aimed at an effective management
of patients both in terms of appropriateness of care and clinical governance. Secondly, it
defines methodological tools useful for clinical and governance decision support
to enhance patient education, increase women’s empowerment in decision-making and
provide an economically sustainable health service.
Finally, it contributes to the literature on the theme of the birth path in public and private
health facilities, identifying factors useful for the creation of an innovative model of
redesign of the care path. [edited by Author]La gravidanza e il parto simboleggiano un periodo di decisioni durante i quali la donna
avverte la necessità di esprimere i propri bisogni e di ricevere informazioni corrette che
conducano a scelte consapevoli.
Nel corso degli anni il tema del percorso nascita è divenuto rilevante a causa dell’aumento
del numero di parti effettuati con taglio cesareo, una pratica chirurgica in grado di
compromettere la salute della donna e del bambino se eseguita senza reali necessità mediche
e con un forte impatto sul sistema sanitario dal punto di vista organizzativo, sociale, clinico
ed economico.
In molti contesti territoriali la scelta di optare per l’intervento chirurgico piuttosto che
favorire il parto naturale è condizionata non tanto dalla presenza di reali differenze nello
stato di salute della popolazione, quanto da molteplici fattori di diversa natura che conducono
a decisioni sempre più inappropriate dal punto di vista clinico ed organizzativo.
Focalizzare l’interesse sul percorso nascita è il modo più appropriato per studiare un
fenomeno su cui occorre intervenire con un approccio di tipo integrato che mette in relazione
i diversi momenti del percorso, gli attori che ne fanno parte, le modalità con cui i servizi
sono erogati, le criticità che vengono riscontrate e le ipotesi di intervento.
Il seguente studio mira a supportare la formulazione di decisioni cliniche e manageriali
appropriate rispetto alla modalità di parto, promuovere un uso consapevole e razionale della
pratica del taglio cesareo e realizzare un efficace processo di patient empowerment.
Sulla base dei dati e delle informazioni ricavate dalle principali fonti informative relative
all’evento nascita, è stato costruito un dataset in cui sono state riportate variabili cliniche ed
extra-cliniche che correlano con le modalità di parto al fine di realizzare uno studio
descrittivo sulla natura multidimensionale del fenomeno.
L’attività progettuale ha previsto un’indagine conoscitiva degli aspetti organizzativi e
procedurali applicati presso le due unità oggetto di indagine, i Reparti di Ginecologia ed
Ostetricia della Clinica Mediterranea S.p.A. di Napoli e dell’Azienda OspedalieroUniversitaria San Giovanni di Dio e Ruggi d’Aragona di Salerno.
Lo studio ha interessanti implicazioni pratiche e di policy. In primo luogo, identifica gli
aspetti del processo organizzativo utili alla costruzione di un percorso assistenziale integrato
che favorisca la sinergia tra ospedale e territorio, volta ad una efficace presa in carico delle
pazienti sia in termini di appropriatezza delle cure che di governo clinico. In secondo luogo,
definisce gli strumenti metodologici utili al supporto decisionale clinico e di governance al
fine di potenziare la patient education, accrescere l’empowerment delle donne nel
processodecisionale e fornire un servizio sanitario economicamente sostenibile.
Infine, contribuisce alla letteratura sul tema del percorso nascita nelle strutture sanitarie
pubbliche e private, identificando fattori utili alla creazione di un innovativo modello di
riprogettazione del percorso assistenziale. [a cura dell'Autore]XXXIII cicl
A Florentine family in crisis: the Strozzi in the fifteenth century.
No full textPhDIn 1434 the Strozzi lineage had held a leading position in
Florentine society and government for at least one hundred and fifty
years, and was one of the largest and wealthiest of the city's
patrician lineages. The records of the catasto of 1427 and of the
scrutiny of 1433 are used to give a profile of the dominant social,
economic and political position of the Strozzi before the advent of
Medicean dominance. Their record of electoral success, and the
political and cultural leadership of influential and respected men
such as Palla di Nofri and Matteo di Simone, with other factors, put
the Strozzi amongst the greatest enemies of the victorious Medicean
regime of late 1434. The effects of political opposition and exile
on the lineage are examined both directly, through records of office-holding,
and indirectly through such indicators as marriage alliances
and household wealth. The two most prominent lines of the Strozzi
were exiled after 1434. Palla di Nofri's life and preoccupations in
his Paduan exile are examined, together with the lives of his sons;
none of these Strozzi ever returned to Florence, pursued as they were
by the enmity of the Medicean regime. The very different careers of
Filippo di Matteo and his brother Lorenzo are also examined: how they
succeeded in founding a lucrative bank in Naples, and in returning to
Florence to 'rebuild' (rifare) the position of the Strozzi lineage
there. The final decades of the century saw the Strozzi in an
economically more secure position, due substantially to the efforts
of Filippo. Except for a very small number of its members admitted
into the regime, most of the lineage is here shown to have remained
excluded from significant political office until after the fall of
the Medici regime in 1494
Implications of Learning Outcomes of In-Person and Virtual Field-Based Geoscience Instruction at Grand Canyon National Park
No full textabstract: Education through field exploration is fundamental in geoscience. But not all students enjoy equal access to field-based learning because of time, cost, distance, ability, and safety constraints. At the same time, technological advances afford ever more immersive, rich, and student-centered virtual field experiences. Virtual field trips may be the only practical options for most students to explore pedagogically rich but inaccessible places. A mixed-methods research project was conducted on an introductory and an advanced geology class to explore the implications of learning outcomes of in-person and virtual field-based instruction at Grand Canyon National Park. The study incorporated the Great Unconformity in the Grand Canyon, a 1.2 billion year break in the rock record; the Trail of Time, an interpretive walking timeline; and two immersive, interactive virtual field trips (iVFTs). The in-person field trip (ipFT) groups collectively explored the canyon and took an instructor-guided inquiry hike along the interpretive Trail of Time from rim level, while iVFT students individually explored the canyon and took a guided-inquiry virtual tour of Grand Canyon geology from river level. High-resolution 360° spherical images anchor the iVFTs and serve as a framework for programmed overlays that enable interactivity and allow the iVFT to provide feedback in response to student actions. Students in both modalities received pre- and post-trip Positive and Negative Affect Schedules (PANAS). The iVFT students recorded pre- to post-trip increases in positive affect (PA) scores and decreases in negative (NA) affect scores, representing an affective state conducive to learning. Pre- to post-trip mean scores on concept sketches used to assess visualization and geological knowledge increased for both classes and modalities. However, the iVFT pre- to post-trip increases were three times greater (statistically significant) than the ipFT gains. Both iVFT and ipFT students scored 92-98% on guided-inquiry worksheets completed during the trips, signifying both met learning outcomes. Virtual field trips do not trump traditional in-person field work, but they can meet and/or exceed similar learning objectives and may replace an inaccessible or impractical in-person field trip.Dissertation/ThesisMasters Thesis Geological Sciences 201
