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Purpose: Sleep State Misperception (SSM) is described as the tendency of Insomnia Disorder (ID) patients to overestimate Sleep Latency (SL) and underestimate Total Sleep Time (TST). Literature exploring topographical components in ID with SSM is scarce and does not allow us to fully understand the potential mechanisms underlying this phenomenon. This study aims to evaluate the existence of sleep EEG topography alterations in ID patients associated with SSM compared to Healthy Controls (HC), focusing on two distinct periods: the Sleep Onset (SO) and the whole night. Methods: Twenty ID patients (mean age: 43.5 ± 12.7; 7 M/13F) and 18 HCs (mean age: 41.6 ± 11.9; 8 M/10F) underwent a night of Polysomnography (PSG) and completed sleep diaries the following morning upon awakening. Two SSM indices, referring to the misperception of SL (SLm) and TST (TSTm), were calculated by comparing objective and subjective sleep indices extracted by PSG and sleep diary. According to these indices, the entire sample was split into 4 sub-groups: ID +SLm vs HC –SLm; ID +TSTm vs HC –TSTm. Results: Considering the SO, the two-way mixed-design ANOVA showed a significant main effect of Groups pointing to a decreased delta/beta ratio in the whole scalp topography. Moreover, we found a significant interaction effect for the sigma and beta bands. Post Hoc tests showed higher sigma and beta power in anterior and temporo-parietal sites during the SO period in IDs +SLm compared to HC –SLm.Considering the whole night, the unpaired t-test revealed in IDs +TSTm significantly lower delta power during NREM, and lower delta/beta ratio index during NREM and REM sleep compared to HCs –TSTm.Finally, we found diffuse significant negative correlations between SSM indices and the delta/beta ratio during SO, NREM, and REM sleep. Conclusion: The main finding of the present study suggests that higher SL overestimation and TST underestimation are both phenomena related to diffuse cortical hyperarousal interpreted as a sleep state-independent electrophysiological correlate of the SSM, both during the SO and the whole night.

The purpose of this paper is to lay the foundation for development of a new strategic plan for the work of the Academy to 2030. Its aim is to invite suggestions from WAAS members and partners regarding priorities for future work. It traces the origins and historical development of the Academy leading up to the present and provides an overview of recent activities and emerging opportunities aligned to its mission which were presented at a meeting of the Board of Trustees at the Academy of Athens in November 2023. The paper ends with a call for proposals from WAAS Fellows for topics to be discussed at an upcoming conference and general assembly of the Academy in mid-2024 as well to be considered during the WAAS strategic Planning Process.

Highly adapted and often endemic microbial taxa inhabit soils and rocks of extremely cold and dry Antarctic deserts. However, the source populations of these organisms have not yet been clarified. Local hotspots, rather than worldwide wind dispersion, have been described as the primary sources of microbial diversity. In particular, the endolithic niche offers a buffered environment, where layered microbial communities have been described, whose dispersion due to rock fragmentation may influence the diversity and nutrient availability of the surrounding soils. On the other hand, microorganisms thriving in soils could be transported to rock surfaces and colonise them. However, the bacterial taxa that are differentially selected and those exchanged between these two substrata have never been defined before. Additionally, the microorganisms detected in these substrata using DNA-based approaches may not be alive but may correspond to fragments of extracellular DNA originated from dead cells. To identify the taxa that are shared between the two substrata, the selective filters that drive their distributions, and the effects of relic DNA on subsequent interpretations of community structure, colonized rock samples were collected from sandstone outcrops in three localities, as well as soil samples at increasing distances from the outcrops. Homogeneous samples were divided into aliquots, and one of each aliquot was treated for extracellular DNA depletion. Both native and treated samples were screened for their bacterial composition through 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding. The results provide the first demonstration of the strong selection of bacterial communities in rocks and soils, reporting some taxa potentially exchanged between the two substrates. Specifically, genera differentially selected between the two habitats were identified, likely due to their different microenvironmental conditions, such as differences in their thermal regimes. Additionally, extracellular DNA depletion had few effects at the taxonomic level and on the identification of differentially selected genera between the two substrata, but it increased the number of significant correlations of physicochemical variables with the diversity and composition of the soil microbial communities. These findings lead us to the conclusion that, despite the strong selection of the two substrates, there is microbial propagule interchange between soils and rocks in this environment. Extracellular DNA should be carefully considered since it has a significant impact on microbial diversity estimations.

Background: The introduction of rapid antigen tests revolutionized the approach to SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis, offering prompt and accurate results with high sensitivity and specificity. Although it is more cost- and time-saving than the gold standard, real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), the efficacy in general population screening in both hospital- and community-based settings remains unknown. Moreover, rapid antigen testing is limited by qualitative results. This study aims to evaluate the diagnostic reliability of the LumiraDx™ rapid antigen test during the Omicron era and to investigate its quantitative (analogue-to-digital converter (ADC)) results in comparison with RT-PCR Ct values. Methods: This prospective study included all adult patients with mild-to-moderate SARS-CoV-2 symptoms who were not hospitalised and did not require oxygen supplementation, consented to participate, and attended the Infectious and Tropical Diseases Unit of Padua University Hospital from July 14th, 2022 to January 3rd, 2023. The patients underwent two different tests simultaneously: a nasal LumiraDx™ swab and a real-time RT-PCR assay performed on a nasopharyngeal swab. Sampling was repeated several times for a subset of subjects. Results: We enrolled 266 consecutive participants and collected 601 pairs of LumiraDx™ and RT-PCR samples. The most prevalent variant was BA.4/BA.5 Omicron (60.2 %). The sensitivity and specificity of LumiraDx™ test when compared to real-time RT-PCR results as the reference standard were 93.1 % and 79.75 %, respectively. No significant differences in diagnostic reliability were found based on the available characteristics, age, sex, symptom status, or COVID-19 variant, except for the days from symptom onset. According to the multilevel logistic regression analysis, the only independent variable significantly associated with test concordance was the Ct value (adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 0.56, p

Everybody needs to wake up to the reality of the Anthropocene. At present, humanity appears ill equipped to cope effectively with the mounting problems that it has itself created; we urgently need to update and upgrade the way we educate and train people since, at present, their competences to see the problems we have created and find effective ways to cope with them are badly insufficient and/or obsolete. The scenarios on our planet are fast worsening, and to help people cope with the mounting emergencies, we need to help them rise to the challenge. We need to create a Marshall Plan of Competences, a new paradigm of education, equipping everybody with the needed competences in how we see, how we know, and how we correctly apply our knowledge. More than anything, we need to learn new ways of being.

This exploratory retrospective study aims to quantitatively compare the image quality of unenhanced brain computed tomography (CT) reconstructed with an iterative (AIDR-3D) and a deep learning-based (AiCE) reconstruction algorithm. After a preliminary phantom study, AIDR-3D and AiCE reconstructions (0.5 mm thickness) of 100 consecutive brain CTs acquired in the emergency setting on the same 320-detector row CT scanner were retrospectively analyzed, calculating image noise reduction attributable to the AiCE algorithm, artifact indexes in the posterior cranial fossa, and contrast-to-noise ratios (CNRs) at the cortical and thalamic levels. In the phantom study, the spatial resolution of the two datasets proved to be comparable; conversely, AIDR-3D reconstructions showed a broader noise pattern. In the human study, median image noise was lower with AiCE compared to AIDR-3D (4.7 vs. 5.3, p < 0.001, median 19.6% noise reduction), whereas AIDR-3D yielded a lower artifact index than AiCE (7.5 vs. 8.4, p < 0.001). AiCE also showed higher median CNRs at the cortical (2.5 vs. 1.8, p < 0.001) and thalamic levels (2.8 vs. 1.7, p < 0.001). These results highlight how image quality improvements granted by deep learning-based (AiCE) and iterative (AIDR-3D) image reconstruction algorithms vary according to different brain areas.