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The increase in food waste accumulation needs innovative valorization strategies that not only reduce environmental impacts but also provide functional applications. This study investigates the potential of almond hulls, an abundant agricultural by-product, as a source of bioactive compounds. For the first time, almond hull extract (AHE), was evaluated in terms of anti-adhesive and anti-biofilm activity against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213 and Escherichia coli ATCC 9637. The extract was obtained by an optimized eco-friendly green technique using ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE), and it was characterized for its main compounds by high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis. Antimicrobial activity was evaluated on planktonic cells by minimum inhibitory/bactericidal concentration (MIC/MBC) and by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assays. Afterward, AHE activity was evaluated against the bacterial sessile phase, both against in-formation and mature biofilm. Finally, the toxicity of the extract was tested on normal human adult cells (HDFa) by an MTT test. The principal active compounds present in AHE belong to the polyphenol group, in particular, the phenolic acid (Hydroxycinnammic sub-class) and, more significantly, the flavonoid class. The results showed that the extract has a relevant antimicrobial activity against the planktonic cells of both tested strains. Moreover, it significantly inhibited bacterial adhesion and promoted biofilm removal, highlighting its potential as a sustainable antimicrobial agent. The MTT test on human fibroblasts showed that the extract is not toxic for normal human cells. This research highlights how food waste valorization could have a high potential in the antimicrobial field.

Aim: Bacterial biofilms can form on surfaces in hospitals, clinics, farms, and food processing plants, representing a possible source of infections and cross-contamination. This study investigates the effectiveness of new commercial wipes against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms (early attachment and formed biofilms), assessing LH SALVIETTE wipes (Lombarda H S.r.l.) potential for controlling biofilm formation., Methods and Results: The wipes efficacy was studied against the early attachment phase and formed biofilm of S. aureus ATCC 6538 and P. aeruginosa ATCC 15442 on a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) surface, following a modified standard test EN 16615:2015, measuring Log10 reduction and cell viability using live/dead staining. It was also evaluated the wipes anti-adhesive activity over time (3 h, 2 4h), calculating CFU.mL-1 reduction. Data were analyzed using t-student test. The wipes significantly reduced both early phase and formed S. aureus biofilm, preventing dispersion on PVC surfaces. Live/dead imaging showed bacterial cluster disaggregation and killing action. The bacterial adhesive capability decreased after short-time treatment (3 h) with the wipes compared to 24 h., Conclusions: Results demonstrated decreased bacterial count on PVC surface both for early attachment phase and formed biofilms, also preventing the bacterial biofilm dispersion., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Applied Microbiology International.)

The imbalance in skin microbiota is characterized by an increased number of pathogens in respect to commensal microorganisms. Starting from a skin microbiota collection, the aim of this work was to evaluate the possible role of Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) Peel Extract (PPE) in restoring the skin microbiota balance acting on Staphylococcus spp. PPE was extracted following green methodology by using n-butane and the Dimethyl Ether (DME) solvents and analyzed for phytochemical composition and antimicrobial activity. The PPE antimicrobial action was evaluated against Gram +, Gram - bacteria and yeast reference strains and the most effective extract was tested against the main skin microbiota isolated strains. PPE extracted with DME showed the best antimicrobial action with MICs ranging from 1 to 128 mg/mL; the main active compounds were Catechin, Quercetin, Vanillic acid and Gallic acid. The PPE in DME anti-adhesive effect was examined against S. epidermidis and S. aureus mono and dual-species biofilm formation by biomass quantification and CFU/mL determination. The extract toxicity was evaluated by using Galleria mellonella larvae in vivo model. The extract displayed a significant anti-adhesive activity with a remarkable species-specific action at 4 and 8 mg/mL against S. epidermidis and S. aureus mono and dual-species biofilms. PPE in DME could represent an eco-sustainable non-toxic strategy to affect the Staphylococcal skin colonization in a species-specific way. The innovation of this work is represented by the reuse of food waste to balance skin microbiota., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 D'Arcangelo 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.)

Novel technologies such as complex magnetic fields-CMFs represent an eco-sustainable proposal to counteract the infection associated to resistant microorganisms. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of two CMF programs (STRESS, ANTIBACTERIAL) against clinical antifungal resistant C. albicans also evaluating their uneffectiveness on gingival fibroblasts (hGFs). The STRESS program was more efficacious on C. albicans biofilm with up to 64.37% ± 10.80 of biomass and up to 99.19% ± 0.06 CFU/ml reductions in respect to the control also inducing an alteration of lipidic structure of the membrane. The MTT assay showed no CMFs negative effects on the viability of hGFs with a major ROS production with the ANTIBACTERIAL program at 3 and 24 h. For the wound healing assay, STRESS program showed the best effect in terms of the rate migration at 24 h, showing statistical significance of p < 0.0001. The toluidine-blue staining observations showed the typical morphology of cells and the presence of elongated and spindle-shaped with cytoplasmic extensions and lamellipodia was observed by SEM. The ANTIBACTERIAL program statistically increased the production of collagen with respect to control and STRESS program (p < 0.0001). CMFs showed a relevant anti-virulence action against C. albicans, no cytotoxicity effects and a high hGFs migration rate. The results of this study suggest that CMFs could represent a novel eco-sustainable strategy to counteract the resistant yeast biofilm infections., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Professional traders need to process a large amount of visual information in their daily activity to judge how risky it is to trade specific investment products. Despite some studies investigating the effects of display clutter on traders, visual attention and memory were never investigated in controlled experimental tasks in this population. Following a preliminary study with 30 participants, visual selective attention and visual working memory were measured and compared between two groups of 15 traders and 15 non-traders (salespeople, acting as a control group) from a large-scale banking group in three experimental tasks measuring selective attention in complex visual contexts, simulating display clutter situations (Visual search), cognitive interference (Stroop task), and a delayed recall visual working memory task. In the Visual search task, traders displayed faster response times (RTs) than non-traders for small display sets, while their performance overlapped for large sets. In the Stroop task, traders showed faster RTs than non-traders but were nevertheless affected by cognitive interference. The memory task highlighted no significant differences between the groups. Therefore, this study found an advantage in traders' attention when processing visual information in small sets with no retention. This result could influence trading activity-determining an immediate use of relevant visual information in decision making-and traders' display layout organization., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background: Spread worldwide through droplets, the Virus Sars-Cov-19 has caused a global health emergency alarm. In order to limit its spread, the use of masks has become part of the daily life of the entire population, however, little is known about its constant use and the changes generated in the oral cavity. This work aims to investigate correlations between the continuous use of masks covering the nose and mouth for 3 h and changes in the ecological factors of the oral cavity., Methods: 34 volunteers were divided into 2 groups: wear only the filtering facepiece code 2 (FFP2) mask (Group A) and wear the FFP2 mask covered by a surgical mask (Group B). Measurement of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), saliva rehydration and consistency test, collection of basal saliva and saliva stimulated with paraffin gum and mucosal swab were collected and analyzed at two times: before using the mask(s) (T 0 ) and 3 h after continuous use of the mask(s) (T 1 )., Results: The results indicated a significant difference between the groups, in which the basal saliva volume and pH and the peaks of VOCs increased for group B between T 0 and T 1 . The rehydration time decreased and the volume and pH of the stimulated saliva increased, but with no significant difference between the groups. Furthermore, group B showed a significant decrease in Candida albicans Colony Forming Units (CFUs) and Total Bacterial Count (TBC) between T 0 and T 1 ., Conclusion: It is concluded that the prolonged use of the FFP2 mask covered by a surgical mask can generate oral alterations in the user., (© 2023. BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature.)

Helicobacter pylori colonizes human gastric mucosa, overcoming stressful conditions and entering in a dormant state. This study evaluated: (i) H. pylori 's physiological changes from active to viable-but-non-culturable (VBNC) and persister (AP) states, establishing times/conditions; (ii) the ability of vitamin C to interfere with dormancy generation/resuscitation. A dormant state was induced in clinical MDR H. pylori 10A/13 by: nutrient starvation (for VBNC generation), incubating in an unenriched medium (Brucella broth) or saline solution (SS), and (for AP generation) treatment with 10xMIC amoxicillin (AMX). The samples were monitored after 24, 48, and 72 h, 8-14 days by OD 600 , CFUs/mL, Live/Dead staining, and an MTT viability test. Afterwards, vitamin C was added to the H. pylori suspension before/after the generation of dormant states, and monitoring took place at 24, 48, and 72 h. The VBNC state was generated after 8 days in SS, and the AP state in AMX for 48 h. Vitamin C reduced its entry into a VBNC state. In AP cells, Vitamin C delayed entry, decreasing viable coccal cells and increasing bacillary/U-shaped bacteria. Vitamin C increased resuscitation (60%) in the VBNC state and reduced the aggregates of the AP state. Vitamin C reduced the incidence of dormant states, promoting the resuscitation rate. Pretreatment with Vitamin C could favor the selection of microbial vegetative forms that are more susceptible to H. pylori therapeutical schemes.

Chronic wounds have harmful effects on both patients and healthcare systems. Wound chronicity is attributed to an impaired healing process due to several host and local factors that affect healing pathways. The resulting ulcers contain a wide variety of microorganisms that are mostly resistant to antimicrobials and possess the ability to form mono/poly-microbial biofilms. The search for new, effective and safe compounds to handle chronic wounds has come a long way throughout the history of medicine, which has included several studies and trials of conventional treatments. Treatments focus on fighting the microbial colonization that develops in the wound by multidrug resistant pathogens. The development of molecular medicine, especially in antibacterial agents, needs an in vitro model similar to the in vivo chronic wound environment to evaluate the efficacy of antimicrobial agents. The Lubbock chronic wound biofilm (LCWB) model is an in vitro model developed to mimic the pathogen colonization and the biofilm formation of a real chronic wound, and it is suitable to screen the antibacterial activity of innovative compounds. In this review, we focused on the characteristics of chronic wound biofilms and the contribution of the LCWB model both to the study of wound poly-microbial biofilms and as a model for novel treatment strategies.

Epidemiological data and etiopathogenesis of brain fog are very heterogeneous in the literature, preventing adequate diagnosis and treatment. Our study aimed to explore the relationship between brain fog, neuropsychiatric and cognitive symptoms in the general population. A sample of 441 subjects underwent a web-based survey, including the PANAS, the DASS-21, the IES-R, the Beck Cognitive Insight Scale, and a questionnaire investigating demographic information, brain fog, subjective cognitive impairments (Scc) and sleep disorders. ANOVA, ANCOVA, correlation and multiple stepwise regression analyses were performed. In our sample, 33% of participants were defined as Healthy Subjects (HS; no brain fog, no Scc), 27% as Probable Brain Fog (PBF; brain fog or Scc), and 40% as Functional Brain Fog (FBF; brain fog plus Scc). PBF and FBF showed higher levels of neuropsychiatric symptoms than HS, and FBF showed the worst psychological outcome. Moreover, worse cognitive symptoms were related to the female gender, greater neuropsychiatric symptoms, sleep disorders, and rumination/indecision. Being a woman and more severe neuropsychiatric symptoms were predictors of FBF severity. Our data pointed out a high prevalence and various levels of severity and impairments of brain fog, suggesting a classificatory proposal and a multifaceted etiopathogenic model, thus facilitating adequate diagnostic and therapeutic approaches., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The funder had no role in the design, execution, interpretation, or writing of the study.

T-cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 following infection and vaccination are less characterized than antibody responses, due to a more complex experimental pathway. We measured T-cell responses in 108 healthcare workers (HCWs) using the commercialized Oxford Immunotec T-SPOT Discovery SARS-CoV-2 assay service (OI T-SPOT) and the PITCH ELISpot protocol established for academic research settings. Both assays detected T-cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 spike, membrane, and nucleocapsid proteins. Responses were significantly lower when reported by OI T-SPOT than by PITCH ELISpot. Four weeks after two doses of either Pfizer/BioNTech BNT162b or ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 AZD1222 vaccine, the responder rate was 63% for OI T-SPOT Panels 1 + 2 (peptides representing SARS-CoV-2 spike protein excluding regions present in seasonal coronaviruses), 69% for OI T-SPOT Panel 14 (peptides representing the entire SARS-CoV-2 spike), and 94% for the PITCH ELISpot total spike. The two OI T-SPOT panels correlated strongly with each other showing that either readout quantifies spike-specific T-cell responses, although the correlation between the OI T-SPOT panels and the PITCH ELISpot total spike was moderate. The standardization, relative scalability, and longer interval between blood acquisition and processing are advantages of the commercial OI T-SPOT assay. However, the OI T-SPOT assay measures T-cell responses at a significantly lower magnitude compared to the PITCH ELISpot assay, detecting T-cell responses in a lower proportion of vaccinees. This has implications for the reporting of low-level T-cell responses that may be observed in patient populations and for the assessment of T-cell durability after vaccination., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Immunology.)

The Omicron, or Pango lineage B.1.1.529, variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) carries multiple spike mutations with high transmissibility and partial neutralizing antibody (nAb) escape. Vaccinated individuals show protection against severe disease, often attributed to primed cellular immunity. We investigated T and B cell immunity against B.1.1.529 in triple BioNTech BNT162b2 messenger RNA-vaccinated health care workers (HCWs) with different SARS-CoV-2 infection histories. B and T cell immunity against previous variants of concern was enhanced in triple-vaccinated individuals, but the magnitude of T and B cell responses against B.1.1.529 spike protein was reduced. Immune imprinting by infection with the earlier B.1.1.7 (Alpha) variant resulted in less durable binding antibody against B.1.1.529. Previously infection-naïve HCWs who became infected during the B.1.1.529 wave showed enhanced immunity against earlier variants but reduced nAb potency and T cell responses against B.1.1.529 itself. Previous Wuhan Hu-1 infection abrogated T cell recognition and any enhanced cross-reactive neutralizing immunity on infection with B.1.1.529.

This study is one of the first aiming at investigating the mental health in the post-lockdown period in an Italian adult population and detecting demographic and psychological predictors for a worse outcome. 1401 participants answered a web-based survey including the Emotional Reaction Questionnaire (ERQ), the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21), and the Dutch Work Addiction Scale (DUWAS). Simple slope analyses highlighted that women, lower age, and suppression were related to higher scores for the PANAS negative affect scale, the DASS-21, the IES-R, the GHQ, and the DUWAS. In our sample, 1.2% of participants showed depressive symptoms, 0.5% anxiety symptoms, and 2% stress symptoms. Moreover, 5.4% of participants reported post-traumatic symptoms and 15% signs of psychological distress. Compared with data on the lockdown period, our results show lower levels of depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms, possibly due to the slackening of preventive measures adopted since June. Despite this, post-traumatic symptoms and signs of psychological distress were still present. Our data suggest the necessity to monitor psychological adaption over time in general and at-risk subjects., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Mindfulness interventions were shown to be effective in improving well-being and reducing perceived stress in several conditions. These effects were also found in online mindfulness-based training, especially in employees in organizational environments. The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of an online mindfulness intervention on healthy employees, especially after the first Italian Covid-19 lockdown. Participants in the intervention group underwent an 8-week mindfulness online training program based on the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) protocol compared to a control (no-intervention) group. All participants filled in weekly surveys for the whole intervention duration via online questionnaires to measure their habits, mindfulness (FFMQ-15), emotion regulation (ERQ), positive and negative affect (PANAS), depression, anxiety and stress (DASS-21), resilience (RSA) and insomnia (ISI). 69 participants in the intervention group and 63 in the no-treatment control group were considered in the longitudinal analyses. We found significant differences between the intervention and control groups over time in the measures of mindfulness (in particular the nonreactivity subscale), positive affect, depression, and insomnia. Moreover, we found that the frequency of practice and ease perceived in practicing were positively correlated to several indices of well-being (mindfulness, positive affect, cognitive reappraisal) and negatively correlated to several indices of stress (negative affect, depression, anxiety, stress, insomnia, expressive suppression). These results show the importance and effectiveness of online mindfulness training programs to cope with stress among employees, especially after the Covid-19 lockdown., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Background: The duration and effectiveness of immunity from infection with and vaccination against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are relevant to pandemic policy interventions, including the timing of vaccine boosters., Methods: We investigated the duration and effectiveness of immunity in a prospective cohort of asymptomatic health care workers in the United Kingdom who underwent routine polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) testing. Vaccine effectiveness (≤10 months after the first dose of vaccine) and infection-acquired immunity were assessed by comparing the time to PCR-confirmed infection in vaccinated persons with that in unvaccinated persons, stratified according to previous infection status. We used a Cox regression model with adjustment for previous SARS-CoV-2 infection status, vaccine type and dosing interval, demographic characteristics, and workplace exposure to SARS-CoV-2., Results: Of 35,768 participants, 27% (9488) had a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. Vaccine coverage was high: 95% of the participants had received two doses (78% had received BNT162b2 vaccine [Pfizer-BioNTech] with a long interval between doses, 9% BNT162b2 vaccine with a short interval between doses, and 8% ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine [AstraZeneca]). Between December 7, 2020, and September 21, 2021, a total of 2747 primary infections and 210 reinfections were observed. Among previously uninfected participants who received long-interval BNT162b2 vaccine, adjusted vaccine effectiveness decreased from 85% (95% confidence interval [CI], 72 to 92) 14 to 73 days after the second dose to 51% (95% CI, 22 to 69) at a median of 201 days (interquartile range, 197 to 205) after the second dose; this effectiveness did not differ significantly between the long-interval and short-interval BNT162b2 vaccine recipients. At 14 to 73 days after the second dose, adjusted vaccine effectiveness among ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine recipients was 58% (95% CI, 23 to 77) - considerably lower than that among BNT162b2 vaccine recipients. Infection-acquired immunity waned after 1 year in unvaccinated participants but remained consistently higher than 90% in those who were subsequently vaccinated, even in persons infected more than 18 months previously., Conclusions: Two doses of BNT162b2 vaccine were associated with high short-term protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection; this protection waned considerably after 6 months. Infection-acquired immunity boosted with vaccination remained high more than 1 year after infection. (Funded by the U.K. Health Security Agency and others; ISRCTN Registry number, ISRCTN11041050.)., (Copyright © 2022 Massachusetts Medical Society.)

Humans naturally perceive visual patterns in a global manner and are remarkably capable of extracting object shapes based on properties such as proximity, closure, symmetry, and good continuation. Notwithstanding the role of these properties in perceptual grouping, studies highlighted differences in disembedding performance across individuals, which are summarized by the field dependence dimension. Evidence suggests that age and educational attainment explain part of this variability, whereas the role of sex is still highly debated. Also, which stimulus features primarily influence inter-individual variations in perceptual grouping has still to be fully determined. Building upon these premises, we assessed the role of age, education level, and sex on performance at the Leuven Embedded Figure Test-a proxy of disembedding abilities-in 391 cisgender individuals. We also investigated to what extent shape symmetry, closure, complexity, and continuation relate to task accuracy. Overall, target asymmetry, closure, and good continuation with the embedding context increase task difficulty. Simpler shapes are more difficult to detect than those with more lines, yet context complexity impairs the recognition of complex targets (i.e., those with 6 lines or more) to a greater extent. Concerning demographic data, we confirm that age and educational attainment are significantly associated with disembedding abilities and reveal a perceptual advantage in males. In summary, our study further highlights the role of shape properties in disembedding performance and unveils sex differences not reported so far., Competing Interests: Sd’A was employed by the company Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center SpA. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Cappello, Lettieri, Malizia, d’Arcangelo, Handjaras, Lattanzi, Ricciardi and Cecchetti.)

Internal mobility often depends on predicting future job satisfaction, for such employees subject to internal mobility programs. In this study, we compared the predictive power of different classes of models, i.e., (i) traditional Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), with two families of Machine Learning algorithms: (ii) regressors, specifically least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso) for feature selection and (iii) classifiers, specifically Bagging meta-model with the k -nearest neighbors algorithm ( k -NN) as a base estimator. Our aim is to investigate which method better predicts job satisfaction for 348 employees (with operational duties) and 35 supervisors in the training set, and 79 employees in the test set, all subject to internal mobility programs in a large Italian banking group. Results showed average predictive power for SEM and Bagging k -NN (accuracy between 61 and 66%; F1 scores between 0.51 and 0.73). Both SEM and Lasso algorithms highlighted the predictive power of resistance to change and orientation to relation in all models, together with other personality and motivation variables in different models. Theoretical implications are discussed for using these variables in predicting successful job relocation in internal mobility programs. Moreover, these results showed how crucial it is to compare methods coming from different research traditions in predictive Human Resources analytics., Competing Interests: SD'A was employed by Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center S.p.A. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Bossi, Di Gruttola, Mastrogiorgio, D'Arcangelo, Lattanzi, Malizia and Ricciardi.)

The COVID-19 evolution has forced the massive introduction of homeworking (HW) for most employees in the initial stages of the pandemic and then return to work, mainly due to the vaccination campaign. These multiple abrupt adjustment demands in work may be a source of intense stress for office workers with consequences on wellbeing and the quality of life. This long-term prospective study aimed at investigating the effect of adaptation demands on a broad population of employees of a large Italian banking group in the job-related stress framework. We administered a web-based survey to 1,264 participants in Reopening after the first lockdown, from June to October 2020, at 841 subjects in Second Wave, corresponding to the rise of contagions from November 2020 to January 2021, and to 491 individuals in Vaccination Round, which ranged from February to June 2021. We assessed workaholism by using the Dutch Work Addiction Scale (DUWAS-10), work-family conflicting overlap by using the Work and Family Conflict Scale (WAFCS), and concern for back to work (BW) and for HW by specific questions. Higher WAFCS scores characterized Reopening and Vaccination Round while Second Wave had the highest level of concern for HW. Women and younger individuals showed the highest concern for BW, WAFCS, and DUWAS-10 scores regardless of the pandemic stage. HW days per week were related to more heightened concern for BW and lower concern for HW, DUWAS, and WAFCS scores. The number of children was related to lower Concern for BW and higher WAFCS scores in Reopening and Second Wave. Our data showed that massive adjustment demands in work and family routine represented a significant source of stress for employees, regardless of the different pandemic stages. The highest level of fatigue emerged in women and younger subjects. These results shed light on the need for a road map to promote a gradual and structured adjustment for workers and encourage organizations to consider homeworking as a valid stable alternative., Competing Interests: SD’A and FM were employed by the company Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center S.p.A. DR was employed by the company Intesa Sanpaolo DC Tutela Aziendale - Sicurezza sul Lavoro ed Ambiente. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Orfei, Porcari, D’Arcangelo, Maggi, Russignaga, Lattanzi, Malizia and Ricciardi.)

In March 2020, the Rare and Imported Pathogens Laboratory at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) (formerly Public Health England [PHE]) Porton Down, was tasked by the Department of Health and Social Care with setting up a national surveillance laboratory facility to study SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses and population-level sero-surveillance in response to the growing SARS-CoV-2 outbreak. In the following 12 months, the laboratory tested more than 160,000 samples, facilitating a wide range of research and informing UKHSA, DHSC, and UK government policy. Here we describe the implementation and use of the Euroimmun anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay and provide an extended evaluation of its performance. We present a markedly improved overall sensitivity of 91.39% (≥14 days 92.74%, ≥21 days 93.59%) compared to our small-scale early study, and a specificity of 98.56%. In addition, we detail extended characteristics of the Euroimmun assay: intra- and interassay precision, correlation to neutralization, and assay linearity. IMPORTANCE Serology assays have been useful in determining those with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection in a wide range of research and serosurveillance projects. However, assays vary in their sensitivity at detecting SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Here, we detail an extended evaluation and characterization of the Euroimmun anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay, one that has been widely used within the United Kingdom on over 160,000 samples to date.

A long tradition of research has shown that personality traits, such as extraversion and agreeableness, and interpersonal constructs better predict job performance with a tacit but not explicit distinction in sales marketing activities. In this contribution, we aim to understand the role of job-related and interest data, interpersonal, and personality traits in affecting either inbound or outbound marketing activities and the overall sales performance. An original questionnaire integrates the interpersonal traits and personality factors reported in the literature in sales marketing activities (independent variables). The results were matched with the individual job-related and interest data (control variables) and sales performance (criterion variables) - expressed as the total number of closed contracts over the inbound/outbound related contacts of employees with responsibility in marketing activities for a large banking group. We are able to identify the relevant predictors of sales performance by creating full binary trees using control and independent variables in conditional inference forests and variable importance index measures. Higher performers in either inbound or outbound marketing activities rely on distinct personality sub-traits, which have fundamentally essential implications for interpersonal functioning, and personal data when agreeableness is central to the ability to function effectively in the interpersonal realm of sales activity.

Age is the major risk factor for mortality after SARS-CoV-2 infection and older people have received priority consideration for COVID-19 vaccination. However, vaccine responses are often suboptimal in this age group and few people over the age of 80 years were included in vaccine registration trials. We determined the serological and cellular response to spike protein in 100 people aged 80-96 years at 2 weeks after the second vaccination with the Pfizer BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine. Antibody responses were seen in every donor with high titers in 98%. Spike-specific cellular immune responses were detectable in only 63% and correlated with humoral response. Previous SARS-CoV-2 infection substantially increased antibody responses after one vaccine and antibody and cellular responses remained 28-fold and 3-fold higher, respectively, after dual vaccination. Post-vaccine sera mediated strong neutralization of live Victoria infection and although neutralization titers were reduced 14-fold against the P.1 variant first discovered in Brazil they remained largely effective. These data demonstrate that the mRNA vaccine platform delivers strong humoral immunity in people up to 96 years of age and retains broad efficacy against the P.1 variant of concern., Competing Interests: HP, GT, RB, SF, CS, PS, CB, KH, KB, GA, SC, SL, EC, NC, KB, EP, CR, AO, RW, SD, BH, AR, JZ, PM No competing interests declared, AM is affiliated with Oxford Immunotec Ltd. The author has no financial interests to declare., (© 2021, Parry et al.)