Search

The ongoing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic and heterologous immunization approaches implemented worldwide for booster doses call for diversified vaccine portfolios. GRAd-COV2 is a gorilla adenovirus-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate encoding prefusion-stabilized spike. The safety and immunogenicity of GRAd-COV2 is evaluated in a dose- and regimen-finding phase 2 trial (COVITAR study, ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04791423) whereby 917 eligible participants are randomized to receive a single intramuscular GRAd-COV2 administration followed by placebo, or two vaccine injections, or two doses of placebo, spaced over 3weeks. Here, we report that GRAd-COV2 is well tolerated and induces robust immune responses after a single immunization; a second administration increases binding and neutralizing antibody titers. Potent, variant of concern (VOC) cross-reactive spike-specific Tcell response peaks after the first dose and is characterized by high frequencies of CD8s. Tcells maintain immediate effector functions and high proliferative potential over time. Thus, GRAd vector is a valuable platform for genetic vaccine development, especially when robust CD8 response is needed.

Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), a live, attenuated strain of Mycobacterium bovis, is the essential constituent of the vaccine against tuberculosis and the gold-standard adjuvant treatment for urothelial cancer of the bladder. Being a live, attenuated strain with a potential pathogenic action, bacilli can cause several complications, both locally near the inoculation site and remotely through blood dissemination. BCG-related disease can represent a side effect of anti-TB vaccination in patient with congenital or acquired immunodeficiency or a complication of the therapeutic schedule in oncologic patients. Herein we report five cases of BCG-related disease which occurred at the Infectious Diseases Department of the University Hospital of Palermo during a five-year period from January 2014 to December 2019.

38th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 191-193, The impact of the injection-level ((Delta)n) on the kinetics of light- and elevated temperature-induced degradation (LeTID) is investigated. Higher illumination intensities (I) are known to increase the LeTID and recovery rates. In this work, the (Delta)n normalisation approach is demonstrated. A similar time scale is observed after normalisation to the (Delta)n at the given I to time. The evidence suggests the recovery rate of LeTID is linearly proportional to (Delta)n and can potentially be used to predict long-term degradation, which can incorporate operating conditions and insolation level, based on an accelerated degradation testing using (Delta)n dependence. The experiment results demonstrated the difference in LeTID and the recovery trends and the overall rates. The variation of (Delta)n during the cycle leads to a slow rate during the degradation since both (Delta)n and the amount of available defect precursors are reduced. However, during the recovery, the (Delta)n is being recovered as the defect states are reduced, which appears to show compressed exponential recovery. The normalisation approach demonstrated here showed very close agreement among the results with different illumination intensities. The implication eliminated both influences due to variation of (Delta)n and the acceleration of the rate due to high n or illumination intensity.

This research explores how an understanding of mid-adolescent preoccupations (self-concept, peer group influence and the social nature of public praise) can enable schools to develop systems of public praise and recognition for Year 10 students. Using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model (1979) to summarise the findings from the literature review, it highlights the overlapping influences of school, home and friends and the significance of the differing roles adopted by the students. The literature review points towards the need for increased student engagement and agency in mid-adolescence in order to develop of a system for public praise and recognition. Through a mixture of phenomenological and quasi-participatory research methods, and by working with friendship groups, a system for public praise and recognition is trialled and refined. The student involvement problematizes the conflicting perspectives of the school and the student within the peer group, but offers a solution which accommodates mid-adolescent needs (peer approval, minimum social awkwardness) with a form of public recognition. The creation of a celebration breakfast, involving friends and allowing privileges (such as the use of mobile phones) is a first step in developing an age appropriate approach to public praise and recognition for Year 10 students. The findings reinforce the importance of student agency, as well as the need for mid adolescents to be seen as individuals within the wider institution of the school. They also point towards the need for further training for educators on the phases of adolescent development.

The proposed introduction of gaming disorder (GD) in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) has led to a lively debate over the past year. Besides the broad support for the decision in the academic press, a recent publication by van Rooij et al. (2018) repeated the criticism raised against the inclusion of GD in ICD-11 by Aarseth et al. (2017). We argue that this group of researchers fails to recognize the clinical and public health considerations, which support the WHO perspective. It is important to recognize a range of biases that may influence this debate; in particular, the gaming industry may wish to diminish its responsibility by claiming that GD is not a public health problem, a position which maybe supported by arguments from scholars based in media psychology, computer games research, communication science, and related disciplines. However, just as with any other disease or disorder in the ICD-11, the decision whether or not to include GD is based on clinical evidence and public health needs. Therefore, we reiterate our conclusion that including GD reflects the essence of the ICD and will facilitate treatment and prevention for those who need it. CA extern

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 328-332, In this paper, we explore the influence of interstitial iron on studying boron-oxygen related degradation in p-type Czochralski silicon. We show that the presence of interstitial iron can potentially explain several key experimental results used to derive theories on the fundamental properties of the boron-oxygen defect. A theoretical analysis of the influence of interstitial iron and the boron-oxygen defect concentrations on the apparent capture cross section ratio indicates that at a concentration of 4 × 1011 /cm3, interstitial iron can result in an apparent capture cross section ratio of >50 for a typical normalised boron-oxygen defect density after fast degradation. With the same interstitial iron concentration, after full degradation, the apparent capture cross section converged to the lifetime ratio with only boron-oxygen defects. We then compare the literature data of first annihilation rate of B-O defects after rapid degradation, to the kinetics of iron-boron pair association. The similar reaction rates suggest that with no iron, after either fast- or slow- degradation, only a single stage of recovery occurs. Another key potential influence of iron occurs when modulating the applied voltage used to induce B-O defect formation. Reducing the applied voltage can result in the association of Fe-B pairs and a subsequent recovery of VOC. We conclude that careful attention must be paid to interstitial iron when studying boron-oxygen defects and that the current models related to boron-oxygen defects may need to be revised.