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This essay deals with the recent book Studies on the Derveni Papyrus, Volume 2, edited by Glenn W. Most (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2022). After assessing its merits and shortcomings, it makes some general points about current publishing, research ethics, and the dangers of co-optation in collaborative work.

Abstract The pediatric population receives the majority of vaccines globally, yet there is a paucity of studies on the transcriptional response induced by immunization in this special population. In this study, we performed a systems-level analysis of immune responses to the trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine adjuvanted with MF-59 in children (15–24 months old) and in young, healthy adults. We analyzed transcriptional responses elicited by vaccination in peripheral blood, as well as cellular and antibody responses following primary and booster vaccinations. Our analysis revealed that primary vaccination induced a persistent transcriptional signature of innate immunity; booster vaccination induced a transcriptional signature of an enhanced memory-like innate response, which was consistent with enhanced activation of myeloid cells assessed by flow cytometry. Furthermore, we identified a transcriptional signature of type 1 interferon response post-booster vaccination and at baseline that was correlated with the local reactogenicity to vaccination and defined an early signature that correlated with the hemagglutinin antibody titers. These results highlight an adaptive behavior of the innate immune system in evoking a memory-like response to secondary vaccination and define molecular correlates of reactogenicity and immunogenicity in infants.

Abstract Yellow fever, a mosquito-borne flavivirus infection, is an important public health problem in Africa and Latin America. A Yellow Fever vaccine (YFV) was developed and tested in a study in India. This was a Phase I, open-label, randomized, controlled study where healthy adults received SII YFV intramuscularly (SII YFV IM), SII YFV subcutaneously (SII YFV SC) or STAMARIL® (Sanofi-Pasteur) in 1:1:1 ratio. They were followed for solicited reactions for 10 days and unsolicited events for 28 days and serious adverse events for 3 months. YF-neutralizing antibodies were measured at baseline and on Days 10, 14, 28. A total of 60 adults were enrolled in the study. The proportion of participants with solicited reactions was 10%, 40%, and 25% in SII YFV SC, SII YFV IM, and STAMARIL® arms, respectively. No causally related unsolicited events or any serious adverse event was reported. After vaccination, the seroconversion was 94.44%, 100%, and 100%, in the three arms respectively. The post-vaccination geometric mean titers were similar in the study arms. The new YFV was found safe and immunogenic by IM as well as SC routes. The vaccine can be tested in further phases of clinical studies.

IntroductionThe haemagglutination inhibition assay (HAI) and the virus microneutralisation assay (MN) are long-established methods for quantifying antibodies against influenza viruses. Despite their widespread use, both assays require standardisation to improve inter-laboratory agreement in testing. The FLUCOP consortium aims to develop a toolbox of standardised serology assays for seasonal influenza. Building upon previous collaborative studies to harmonise the HAI, in this study the FLUCOP consortium carried out a head-to-head comparison of harmonised HAI and MN protocols to better understand the relationship between HAI and MN titres, and the impact of assay harmonisation and standardisation on inter-laboratory variability and agreement between these methods.MethodsIn this paper, we present two large international collaborative studies testing harmonised HAI and MN protocols across 10 participating laboratories. In the first, we expanded on previously published work, carrying out HAI testing using egg and cell isolated and propagated wild-type (WT) viruses in addition to high-growth reassortants typically used influenza vaccines strains using HAI. In the second we tested two MN protocols: an overnight ELISA-based format and a 3-5 day format, using reassortant viruses and a WT H3N2 cell isolated virus. As serum panels tested in both studies included many overlapping samples, we were able to look at the correlation of HAI and MN titres across different methods and for different influenza subtypes.ResultsWe showed that the overnight ELISA and 3-5 day MN formats are not comparable, with titre ratios varying across the dynamic range of the assay. However, the ELISA MN and HAI are comparable, and a conversion factor could possibly be calculated. In both studies, the impact of normalising using a study standard was investigated, and we showed that for almost every strain and assay format tested, normalisation significantly reduced inter-laboratory variation, supporting the continued development of antibody standards for seasonal influenza viruses. Normalisation had no impact on the correlation between overnight ELISA and 3-5 day MN formats.

The photophysics of 9(19),16(17),23(24)-tri-tert-butyl-2-[ethynyl-(4-carboxymethyl)phenyl]phthalocyaninatozinc(ii) and its H-aggregates is studied in different solvents by means of ultrafast non-linear optical spectroscopy and computational modeling. In non-coordinating solvents, both stationary and time-resolved spectroscopies highlight the formation of extended molecular aggregates, whose dimension and spectral properties depends on the concentration. In all the explored experimental conditions, time-resolved transient absorption experiments show multi exponential decay of the signals. Additional insights into the excited state relaxation mechanisms of the system is obtained with 2D electronic spectroscopy, which is employed to compare the deactivation channels in the absence or presence of aggregates. In ethanol and diethylether, where only monomers are present, an ultrafast relaxation process among the two non-degenerate Q-states of the molecule is evidenced by the appearance of a cross peak in the 2D-maps. In chloroform or CCl4, where disordered H-aggregates are formed, an energy transfer channel among aggregates with different composition and size is observed, leading to the non-radiative decay towards the lower energy dark state of the aggregates. Efficient coupling between less and more aggregated species is highlighted in two-dimensional electronic spectra by the appearance of a cross peak. The kinetics and intensity of the latter depend on the concentration of the solution. Finally, the linear spectroscopic properties of the aggregate are reproduced using a simplified structural model of an extended aggregate, based on Frenkel Hamiltonian Calculations and on an estimate of the electronic couplings between each dimer composing the aggregate computed at DFT level.

In vitro models of pathological cardiac tissue have attracted interest as predictive platforms for preclinical validation of therapies. However, models reproducing specific pathological features, such as cardiac fibrosis size (i.e., thickness and width) and stage of development are missing. This research was aimed at engineering 2D and 3D models of early-stage post-infarct fibrotic tissue (i.e., characterized by non-aligned tissue organization) on bioartificial scaffolds with biomimetic composition, design, and surface stiffness. 2D scaffolds with random nanofibrous structure and 3D scaffolds with 150 µm square-meshed architecture were fabricated from polycaprolactone, surface-grafted with gelatin by mussel-inspired approach and coated with cardiac extracellular matrix (ECM) by 3 weeks culture of human cardiac fibroblasts. Scaffold physicochemical properties were thoroughly investigated. AFM analysis of scaffolds in wet state, before cell culture, confirmed their close surface stiffness to human cardiac fibrotic tissue. Following 3 weeks culture, biomimetic biophysical and biochemical scaffold properties triggered the activation of myofibroblast phenotype. Upon decellularization, immunostaining, SEM and two-photon excitation fluorescence microscopy showed homogeneous decoration of both 2D and 3D scaffolds with cardiac ECM. The versatility of the approach was demonstrated by culturing ventricular or atrial cardiac fibroblasts on scaffolds, thus suggesting the possibility to use the same scaffold platforms to model both ventricular and atrial cardiac fibrosis. In the future, herein developed in vitro models of cardiac fibrotic tissue, reproducing specific pathological features, will be exploited for a fine preclinical tuning of therapies.

Natural history museums are irreplaceable tools to study and preserve the biological diversity around the globe and among the primary actors in the recognition of species and the logical repositories for their type specimens. In this paper we surveyed the consistency of the preserved specimens of amphibians and reptiles housed in the major Italian scientific collections, and verified the presence of threatened species according to the IUCN Red List, including the Extinct (EX), Extinct in the Wild (EW), Critically Endangered (CR), Endangered (EN), and Vulnerable (VU) categories. Altogether, we analyzed 39 Italian zoological collections. We confirmed the presence of one extinct reptile (Chioninia coctei) and five extinct or extinct in the wild amphibian species (Atelopus longirostris, Nectophrynoides asperginis, Pseudophilautus leucorhinus, P. nasutus, and P. variabilis). Seven CR amphibians, fourteen CR reptile species and the extinct skink C. coctei are shared by more than one institution. Museums which host the highest number of threatened and extinct amphibian species are respectively Turin (17 CR and 1 EX), Florence (13 CR and 1 EX), and Trento (15 CR and 1 EW), while for reptiles the richest museums are those from Genoa (15 CR and 1 EX), Florence (11 CR and 1 EX), and Pisa (7 CR). Finally, we discussed the utility of natural history museums and the strategies to follow for the implementation of their functionality.

Remote sensing has become an important mean to assess crop areas, specially for the identification of crop types. Google Earth Engine (GEE) is a free platform that provides a large number of satellite images from different constellations. Moreover, GEE provides pixel-based classifiers, which are used for mapping agricultural areas. The objective of this work is to evaluate the performance of different classification algorithms such as Minimum Distance (MD), Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Classification and Regression Trees (CART) and Na¨ıve Bayes (NB) on an agricultural area in Tuscany (Italy). Four different scenarios were implemented in GEE combining different information such as optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data, indices and time series. Among the five classifiers used the best performers were RF and SVM. Integrating Sentinel-1 (S1) and Sentinel-2 (S2) slightly improves the classification in comparison to the only S2 image classifications. The use of time series substantially improves supervised classifications. The analysis carried out so far lays the foundation for the integration of time series of SAR and optical data.

The essay aims at demonstrating that it is dangerous to try to reconstruct a philosophical doctrine taking into account solely or predominantly the analysis of vocabulary. This is particularly true of the philosophical doctrines of the ancients, who generally did not feel obliged to adopt a coherent and unambiguous technical terminology. Starting from the essay of F. Camera, Sui molteplici significati di hermeneia in Platone, which was published in 2004 and then re-edited in 2011 with few modifications but with a different title (Platone e l’ermenutica), the author shows that the method of facing Plato’s hermeneutics through the ἑρμηνεύειν-words is a source of distortions and over-interpretations; that is, it causes excessive density and conceptual significance to be attributed to words used instead in their current meaning. One must remember, even if it should be well known to anyone who devotes himself to these themes, that not all words, expressions and concepts become philosophical entities only because they appear in the works of an author tagged “philosophy.”