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Abstract Background Studies have shown that a usual source of care increases the receipt of child preventive care; however, the relationship between having a usual source of primary care and COVID‐19 parental vaccine hesitancy has not been fully investigated. The aims of this study were to elucidate the characteristics of mothers with a primary care physician, and to explore the relationship between having a usual source of primary care and COVID‐19 parental vaccine hesitancy among mothers in Japan. Method This cross‐sectional survey‐based study included 4516 mothers. Using a chi‐square test, the characteristics of mothers with and without a primary care physician were compared. Poisson regression was applied to evaluate the relationship between having a usual source of primary care and parental COVID‐19 vaccine hesitancy. Results Mothers with a usual source of primary care had higher education, lower mental distress, had younger children, and were less hesitant toward the child's COVID‐19 vaccination. Vaccine hesitancy was observed in 39.8% of mothers with a usual source of primary care and 45.5% of those without. Poisson regression analysis showed that mothers with a primary care physician were less vaccine‐hesitant (IRR = 0.90, 95% CI = 0.84–0.96) after adjusting for potential confounders. Conclusion This study suggested that having a usual source of primary care may contribute to lower parental COVID‐19 vaccine hesitancy. However, the high vaccine hesitancy rate, even among mothers with a usual source of primary care, warrants healthcare providers to be equipped to help parents make informed decisions about vaccination through the continuity of care.

The Covid-19 pandemic has raised interest within many interdisciplinary fields. Researchers in the field of education were particularly interested in reporting teachers’ and students’ experiences (e.g., Hoti, Dragusha, and Ndou 2022) during the period of Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) (Hodges et al. 2020) and Sustained Remote Teaching (SRT) (Stewart, Baek, and Lowenthal 2022). This article aims to provide a further contribution to education studies by exploring students’ experiences in an English language course organised by an Italian University Language Centre during the 2020/21 academic year. More specifically, it focuses on how interactions were accomplished in foreign language virtual classrooms and whether students’ perceptions on online teaching have changed with SRT. Results showed that although students still preferred face-to-face lessons, they highly appreciated specific tools of online teaching (e.g., recordings) and wished they could be implemented in traditional lessons. The data also confirmed the importance of interactions in modern foreign language virtual classrooms and found that most students who had an overall negative experience with online teaching were also students who had more difficulties in interacting during classes.

The decline of Neoclassical dominance has paved the way to a more fragmented Mainstream. In this article, we empirically explore the Mainstream’s thematic structure and its fragmentation’s effects on within-discipline communication. For this purpose, we exploit a dataset containing 10,064 articles published in economics in seven Blue Ribbon Eight journals between 1985 and 2006 and their citations. Articles are assigned to 18 topics created via Latent Dirichlet Allocation to represent specialities within economics. Results show that the economic Mainstream has yet to experience a dramatic increase in fragmentation in the observed period, and the prevailing topics are related to market equilibrium and econometrics. Moreover, the Mainstream’s thematic structure does not include any heterodox approach. Regarding communication, economists increasingly tap into diverse sources of information, and such diversity positively impacts the citational patterns of articles. The same result holds for the articles written by Nobel Prize winners and the most cited articles in the discipline, which exhibit a higher diversity than the whole sample.

Oxidative stress is a common feature of neurodegenerative diseases. Different natural compounds mediate neuroprotective effects by activating the Nrf2 antioxidant response. Some isothiocyanates are Nrf2 activators, including Moringin (MOR). In this study, the transcriptional profile of differentiated NSC-34 motor neurons was evaluated after treatment for 48 h and 96 h with concentrations of 0.5, 5, and 10 µM of a new MOR formulation obtained with α-cyclodextrin (α-CD). All the concentrations increased gene expression and cytoplasmic protein levels of Nrf2 at 96 h. However, the highest dose also increased nuclear Nrf2 levels at 96 h. Then, Nrf2 interactors were selected using STRING, and common biological process (BP) terms between the groups were evaluated. α-CD/MOR was able to modulate BP related to responses to oxidative stress, proteostasis, and autophagy. Specifically, the treatment with 10 µM of α-CD/MOR for 96 h induced genes involved in glutathione synthesis and proteasome subunits and reduced the expression of genes related to endoplasmic reticulum stress. Moreover, this group showed the lowest levels of the apoptotic markers Bax, cleaved caspase 9, and cleaved caspase 3. These results indicate the beneficial effects of prolonged α-CD/MOR supplementation that are mediated, at least in part, by Nrf2 activation. Then, α-CD/MOR could be a valuable treatment against neurodegenerative diseases, in particular motor neuron degeneration.

Background: Obesity is a global epidemic that affects millions worldwide and can be a deterrent to surgical procedures in the population waiting for kidney transplantation. However, the literature on the topic is controversial. This study evaluates the impact of body mass index (BMI) on complications after renal transplantation, and identifies factors associated with major complications to develop a prognostic risk score. Methods: A correlation analysis between BMI and early and late complications was first performed, followed by a univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. The 302 included patients were divided into obese (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) and non-obese (BMI ≤ 30 kg/m2) groups. Correlation analysis showed that delayed graft function (DGF) was the only obesity-associated complication (p = 0.044). Logistic regression analysis identified female sex, age ≥ 57 years, BMI ≥ 25 and ≥30 kg/m2, previous abdominal and/or urinary system surgery, and Charlson morbidity Score ≥ 3 as risk factors for significant complications. Based on the analyzed data, we developed a nomogram and a prognostic risk score. Results: The model’s area (AUC) was 0.6457 (95% IC: 0.57; 0.72). The percentage of cases correctly identified by this model retrospectively applied to the entire cohort was 73.61%. Conclusions: A high BMI seems to be associated with an increased risk of DGF, but it does not appear to be a risk factor for other complications. Using an easy-to-use model, identification, and stratification of individualized risk factors could help to identify the need for interventions and, thus, improve patient eligibility and transplant outcomes. This could also contribute to maintaining an approach with high ethical standards.

Conservation, characterization and exploitation of agrobiodiversity are key factors to guarantee food security and face future challenges such as climate changes. These issues are the subject of a series of international agreements, such as the Convention of Biological Diversity, with its Nagoya Protocol, and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) adopted in 2001 and entered into force in 2004. Italy ratified the Treaty in 2004 and instituted a long-lasting program, RGV-FAO, to implement it. CREA is one of the three organizations involved in the RGV-FAO Program, together with the National Research Council (CNR) and Reti Semi Rurali. CREA maintains a total of 40,186 accessions including cereals, vegetables, fruits, forages, industrial crops, forest and woody crops, medicinal and aromatic plants, and their wild relatives. Accessions are conserved using different ex situ conservation systems (seeds, in vivo plants, vegetative organs and in vitro plantlets), and characterized using genetic, morpho-phenological and/or biochemical methods. Herein, we will present the CREA long-lasting program RGV-FAO with some examples of the use of plant genetic resources in breeding programs, including molecular approaches. Some critical issues related to access and benefit sharing in PGRFA, such as the Nagoya Protocol and the Digital Sequence Information, will be discussed, highlighting their potential impact on food security and on the advancement of knowledge.

This study proposes a method for generating geofences driven by GPS trajectory data to realize scalable point-of-interest (POI) notifiers, encouraging walking tourists to discover new local spots. The case study revealed that manual geofence settings degrade the location relevance and user coverage—key objectives of POI notifiers—and hinder the scalability and reliability of services. The formalization presented computationally equips geofence designers with practical solutions through two implementations based on prior GPS trajectory logs: (1) a multiobjective genetic algorithm that suggests cost-effective geofences by providing trade-off visualizations and (2) a user coverage-penalized genetic algorithm that determines an optimal geofence based on the designers’ expectations. The feasibility and stability of the proposed implementations were tested in areas with varying tourist flow patterns. A comparative survey among manual settings, settings incorporating a reliability simulation, and data-driven settings demonstrates significant performance improvements for geofence services.

BackgroundChemoradiation therapy (CRT) is the treatment of choice for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (LA-NSCLC). Several clinical trials that combine programmed cell death 1 (PD1) axis inhibitors with radiotherapy are in development for patients with LA-NSCLC. However, the effect of CRT on tumor cells programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1) expression is unknown.MethodsIn this multicentric retrospective study, we analyzed paired NSCLC specimens that had been obtained pre- and post-CRT. PD-L1 expression on tumor cells was studied by immunohistochemistry. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility, risk of complications, and clinical relevance of performing re-biopsy after CRT in patients with PD-L1 negative LA-NSCLC.ResultsOverall, 31 patients from 6 centers with PD-L1 negative LA-NSCLC were analyzed. The percentage of tumor cells with PD-L1 expression significantly increased between pre- and post-CRT specimens in 14 patients (45%). Nine patients had unchanged PD-L1 expression after CRT, in five patients the rebiopsy material was insufficient for PD-L1 analysis and in two patients no tumor cells at rebiopsy were found. The post-rebiopsy complication rate was very low (6%). All patients with positive PD-L1 re-biopsy received Durvalumab maintenance after CRT, except one patient who had a long hospitalization for tuberculosis reactivation. Median PFS of patients with unchanged or increased PD-L1 expression was 10 and 16.9 months, respectively.ConclusionCRT administration can induce PD-L1 expression in a considerable fraction of PD-L1 negative patients at baseline, allowing them receiving the maintenance Durvalumab in Europe. Hence, after a definitive CRT, PD-L1 redetermination should be considered in patients with LA-NSCLC PD-L1 negative, to have a better selection of maintenance Durvalumab candidates.

Myogenesis is regulated mainly by transcription factors known as Myogenic Regulatory Factors (MRFs), and the transcription is affected by epigenetic modifications. However, the epigenetic regulation of myogenesis is poorly understood. Here, we focused on the epigenomic modification enzyme, PHF2, which demethylates histone 3 lysine 9 dimethyl (H3K9me2) during myogenesis. Phf2 mRNA was expressed during myogenesis, and PHF2 was localized in the nuclei of myoblasts and myotubes. We generated Phf2 knockout C2C12 myoblasts using the CRISPR/Cas9 system and analyzed global transcriptional changes via RNA-sequencing. Phf2 knockout (KO) cells 2 d post differentiation were subjected to RNA sequencing. Gene ontology (GO) analysis revealed that Phf2 KO impaired the expression of the genes related to skeletal muscle fiber formation and muscle cell development. The expression levels of sarcomeric genes such as Myhs and Mybpc2 were severely reduced in Phf2 KO cells at 7 d post differentiation, and H3K9me2 modification of Mybpc2, Mef2c and Myh7 was increased in Phf2 KO cells at 4 d post differentiation. These findings suggest that PHF2 regulates sarcomeric gene expression via epigenetic modification.

Key Clinical Message Angiosarcoma is a rare malignant disease with an extremely poor prognosis, showing rapid progression of the local tumor and/or distant metastases. Although multidisciplinary approach including systemic chemotherapy and radiation therapy is ideal for this disease, surgical resection have a role in disease control and should be performed as soon as possible. Abstract Angiosarcomas originating from the tongue are rare and have extremely malignant features, leading to a poor prognosis. Herein, we report the case of a patient with angiosarcoma arising from the tongue who was successfully treated surgically. A 71‐year‐old man was diagnosed with a mass on the right side of his tongue and visited the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at our hospital. The patient was referred to our department for further examination and treatment after a biopsy of the right edge of the tongue. An irregularly raised tumor 50 mm in length was noted on the right lingual border. The preoperative diagnosis was a primary angiosarcoma of the tongue (clinical stage, T3N2bM0, Stage IV). As his tumor had been growing rapidly, he emergently underwent partial right‐sided tongue resection and right neck dissection without reconstructive surgery. The histopathological diagnosis was pT3N0. Postoperatively, the patient showed no signs of recurrence or metastasis during the 1‐year follow‐up. As for angiosarcomas, surgical resection is the only curative treatment, and surgery should be performed as soon as possible after the final diagnosis.