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Background We aimed at appraising real-life efficacy of Crohn’s Disease Exclusion Diet (CDED) coupled with partial enteral nutrition (PEN) in inducing clinical and biochemical remission at disease onset and in patients with loss of response to biologics in a tertiary-level center. We also aimed at identifying early responders to this dietary regimen. Methods We gathered clinical, anthropometric and laboratory data of patients aged less then 18 years of age with a diagnosis of CD, who were consecutively treated with CDED coupled with PEN as main treatment for the induction of remission or in the setting of loss of response to other therapies. We collected data of patients who received CDED plus PEN from April 2019 to June 2022 at diagnosis, at the beginning of the dietary treatment, and at the phase 1. Patients who interrupted diet during follow-up were considered as treatment failures on an intent to treat basis. We compared groups using chi-square, Fisher’s exact test, Mann-Whitney U or related-samples Wilcoxon signed rank tests or McNemar’s test as appropriate. Results 47 patients were retrospectively identified. Table 1. summarizes clinical and biochemical characteristics at diagnosis and at CDED with PEN initiation. 24 (51.1%) patients started CDED as induction therapy at disease onset, whereas 23 (48.9%) of them received CDED with PEN as add-on therapy. 32/47 (68%) patients achieved clinical remission (wPCDAI < 12.5) at the end of phase 1, 16/24 patients (66.7%) who started CDED as induction therapy and 16/23 (69.5%) of those who started CDED as add-on, with no statistically significant difference among the two groups (p=1.00). Laboratory parameters significantly improved in both groups (Figure 1.). There were no statistically significant differences in clinical remission rates between patients with mild-to-moderate and severe disease at the end of phase 1 (25/35 vs 7/12, p=0.481). At disease onset, 14 patients added a concomitant treatment (11 patients added anti-TNF alpha, 3 patients added IMM and one patient added anti-TNF alpha + IMM) after a median time of 4 weeks (IQR: 3-5 weeks). 28 patients had clinical data gathered at week 3. Patients who achieved clinical response at week 3 (a change in wPCDAI > 12.5) were more likely to be in clinical remission at the end of phase 1 (17/20 vs 1/8, p Conclusion CDED with PEN confirmed its efficacy in a real-life setting, both as induction regimen and as add-on therapy, also in patients with clinically severe disease. Early clinical response predicts clinical remission at the end of phase 1, possibly allowing identification of dietary responsive disease. Table 1. Figure 1.

Background Ulcerative colitis tend to present with a more extensive phenotype and a more aggressive behavior in pediatric populations when compared to adult ones. Treatment targets are shifting from symptom alleviation to more objective outcomes, such as the healing of the mucosa and the complete resolution of microscopic inflammation. However, data regarding real-life attainment of such outcomes and their prognostic implications are lacking. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis on pediatric patients affected by UC who were followed up for at least, 12 month at a tertiary referral center. We included only patients who underwent endoscopic reassessment during clinical remission. Results Eighty-four patients were included. At diagnosis, patients were divided with regard to the extent of disease as assessed by the Paris classification as follows:, 45 (53.6%) showed pancolitis E4, 2 (2.4%) left colitis E3, 22 (26.2%) proctosigmoiditis E2, and, 15 (17.8%) proctitis E1. Globally, 14 (16.7%) patients presented with an acute severe colitis (ASC) attack at diagnosis. The median age at diagnosis was, 13 years and, 7 months (IQR=94 months). Patients were followed for a median time of, 18 months (IQR:, 22 months). The second endoscopy was performed after a median time of, 27 months (IQR=32). At the second endoscopic re-evaluation, 64 (76.2%) patients out of the total had regression of disease; whereas, 20 (23.8%) patients out of the total had progression of disease. Twenty (23.8%) patients had a Mayo score of, 1, whereas, 36 (42.8%) patients had a Mayo score of, 0. Complete histological healing was achieved by, 17 (20.2%) patients. When observing recurrence-free survival, patients who achieved partial and complete MH showed a significantly higher recurrence-free survival (p Conclusion We reported the long-term outcomes of a selected group of pediatric patients with ulcerative colitis. Achievement of mucosal and histological healing appeared to protect against disease recurrence, with patients who resolved completely microscopic inflammation showing longer relapse-free survival rates.

Recently, technical results from the theory of Compressive Sensing have been applied to the Fourier class of algorithms for solving the ever-increasing seismic data interpolation problem while handling potentially irregularly sampled geometries. The method we here propose makes use of the so-called Conjugate Gradient Pursuit with the Stagewise Selection Strategy, a novel general purpose algorithm for sparse representation, which brings advantages in terms of computational costs when compared to the well-known Matching Pursuit, while not affecting accuracy. The effectiveness and efficiency of the derived interpolation method is proved and compared to the performances of the Matching Pursuit-based interpolation method when applied on a real dataset showing, in turns, intrinsic sampling irregularity and heavy manual trace decimation.

During last decade Fourier methods based on Compressive Sensing sparsity promoting tools have been ascertained as most effective approaches to the interpolation of irregular sampled data problem. This is due to their capability in handling the non-orthogonality of the Fourier dictionary when data sampling is irregular. The assumption that seismic data have a sparse representation in the Fourier domain make possible the usage of greedy algorithms in order to estimate the spectrum while contrasting the energy leakage effect. The well-known Matching Pursuit and Orthogonal Matching Pursuit have been applied with this aim, by the way both of them turned out to be heavily time-consuming approaches. Thus, next challenge is to come out with a method which is not only effective, but also efficient. In this sense the usage of the recently developed Stagewise Conjugate Gradient Pursuit is proposed. It differs from above mentioned approaches in two main innovations: in selecting more than a single component per each iteration and in updating components by conjugate directions at each iteration. Experiments on a real 3D marine dataset show how Stagewise Conjugate Gradient Pursuit converges much faster than Matching Pursuit to the desired solution while not affecting accuracy of recovered data.

This paper describes Excreted-secreted proteins (ES) proteins that were immunolocalised in the cuticle, amphids and subventral glands of second stage juveniles of the two species of potato cyst nematodes (Globodera pallida and Globodera rostochiensis). Monoclonal antibodies reactive with these ES proteins were used in a bioassay to investigate their effect on nematode movement and on their ability to invade potato roots. Antibodies recognising the nematode cuticle surface and the amphids affected nematode movement and delayed nematode penetration of roots. These effects were temporary, since the nematodes were able to recover and infect potato roots. Movement of second stage juveniles treated with the antibodies was impaired for the first 30 min after inoculation: the juveniles remained close to the point of introduction and moved slowly and abnormally. They recovered normal movement after 1–2 h, possibly because the turnover rate of the secreted proteins meant that they were no longer blocked by the monoclonal antibodies. No effect was observed on second stage juveniles treated with an antibody reactive with secretions from the oesophageal glands. Nematodes treated with antibodies reactive with the nematode cuticle surface were notably more affected than those treated with other antibodies; nematodes failed to recover movement when in continuous contact with the antibodies. It is possible that the physical presence of the antibodies on the nematode surface affected their motility. Nematodes treated with antibodies reactive with secretions from the amphids were temporarily unable to move towards potato roots and their exploratory behaviour was greatly affected by the antibody treatment. Whether these antibodies were able to inhibit temporarily the function of the amphids or this effect was due to physical presence of the antibodies blocking the amphidial pore remains to be determined.