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Could anti-tubercular vaccination protect against COVID-19 infection? Correspondence to the letter entitled: Is BCG vaccination effecting the spread and severity of COVID-19? Since 1975, BCG vaccination policy in Sweden changed from routine vaccination of all newborn infants to selective vaccination of groups at higher risk,3 and Spain did the same, but not Portugal (Figure 1). [Extracted from the article]

Background: Epidemiological studies have shown an association between global warming, air pollution, and allergic diseases. Several air pollutants, including volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde, toluene, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and particulate matter, act as risk factors for the development or aggravation of atopic dermatitis (AD). We evaluated the impact of air pollutants and weather changes on AD patients. Materials and Methods: Sixty AD patients ≥5 years of age (mean age: 23.5 ± 12.5 years), living in the Campania Region (Southern Italy), were followed for 18 months. The primary outcome was the effect of atmospheric and climatic factors on signs and symptoms of AD, assessed using the SCORAD (SCORing Atopic Dermatitis) index. We measured mean daily temperature (TOD), outdoor relative humidity (RH), diurnal temperature range (DTR), precipitation, particulate with aerodynamic diameter ≤ 10 μm (PM10), NO2, tropospheric ozone (O3), and total pollen count (TPC). A multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to examine the associations of AD signs and symptoms with these factors. An artificial neural network (ANN) analysis investigated the relationships between weather changes, environmental pollutants, and AD severity. Results: The severity of AD symptoms was positively correlated with outdoor temperatures (TOD, DTR), RH, precipitation, PM10, NO2, O3, and TPC. The ANN analysis also showed a good discrimination performance (75.46%) in predicting disease severity based on environmental pollution data, but weather‐related factors were less predictive. Conclusion: The results of the present study provide evidence that weather changes and air pollutions have a significant impact on skin reactivity and symptoms in AD patients, increasing the severity of the dermatitis. The knowledge of the single variables proportion on AD severity symptoms is important to propose alerts for exacerbations in patients with AD of each age. This finding represents a good starting point for further future research in an area of increasingly growing interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent techniques of three‐dimensional (3D) imaging of potential field anomalies are effective in estimating the source position in the subsurface by exploiting both the differentiation of the field and the stability of the method. Such a processing is fast and especially suitable for detecting isolated and compact sources, as usually are those of archaeological interest. Among these methods we employed techniques that take advantage from innovative concepts like the multiscale transformation and the scaling function, going well beyond the standard procedures usually employed for data processing with archaeological purposes. We interpreted magnetic data acquired during two geophysical surveys carried out in 2008 and 2010 at Tell Barri, in north‐eastern Syria. Tell Barri is a relevant site for the history of North Mesopotamia. The earliest settlement dates back to the end of the fourth millennium bce whereas the site has been occupied – with no major breaks – until the fourteenth century ce. Based on the magnetic data interpretation, we have selected a test area as a target for an archeological excavation. The excavation found ancient structures closely matching the magnetic source revealed by the geophysical imaging. Since both the ground soil and the material of buried archaeological structures are representative of several ancient settlements in a much larger area (Upper Mesopotamia), we believe that such a geophysical approach could be successful in many archaeological sites scattered through this broad region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Potential field interpretation can be carried out using multiscale methods. This class of methods analyses a multiscale data set, which is built by upward continuation of the original data to a number of altitudes conveniently chosen. Euler deconvolution can be cast into this multiscale environment by analysing data along ridges of potential fields, e.g., at those points along lines across scales where the field or its horizontal or vertical derivative respectively is zero. Previous work has shown that Euler equations are notably simplified along any of these ridges. Since a given anomaly may generate one or more ridges we describe in this paper how Euler deconvolution may be used to jointly invert data along all of them, so performing a multiridge Euler deconvolution. The method enjoys the stable and high-resolution properties of multiscale methods, due to the composite upward continuation/vertical differentiation filter used. Such a physically-based field transformation can have a positive effect on reducing both high-wavenumber noise and interference or regional field effects. Multiridge Euler deconvolution can also be applied to the modulus of an analytic signal, gravity/magnetic gradient tensor components or Hilbert transform components. The advantages of using multiridge Euler deconvolution compared to single ridge Euler deconvolution include improved solution clustering, increased number of solutions, improvement of accuracy of the results obtainable from some types of ridges and greater ease in the selection of ridges to invert. The multiscale approach is particularly well suited to deal with non-ideal sources. In these cases, our strategy is to find the optimal combination of upward continuation altitude range and data differentiation order, such that the field could be sensed as approximately homogeneous and then characterized by a structural index close to an integer value. This allows us to estimate depths related to the top or the centre of the structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Downward continuation is a useful transformation, mainly used to enhance measured gravity or magnetic field anomalies. It is known to be an unstable transformation that should be strictly used only in the harmonic region, apparently preventing any meaningful application to continuations inside the source volume. Despite these well-known theoretical and practical limitations it has been used to recover source parameters by different methods, here referred to as normalized full gradient methods. Such methods show that downward continuation may be extended to the source volume, which is assumed to contain one-point, isolated singularities, which is a quasi-harmonic region. We modify the normalized full gradient method focusing our attention to the way the downward continuation is normalized. Differently from normalized full gradient methods, we study the effect of the normalization not only on the analytical signal modulus of the downward continued field but also on the downward continuation of the gravity or magnetic fields themselves. With our method, called normalized downward continuation, several statistically meaningful normalizations are considered, some of them yielding improved, more resolved depth estimations for synthetic as well as measured total-field anomalies. From a statistical point of view, the downward continued field tends to have right-skewed histograms at shallow depths, while becoming symmetrically distributed at greater depths. This occurs because, as the depth of continuation increases, the intrinsic error propagation of the downward continuation allows the error to dominate with respect to the source-related signal. For non-isolated anomalies, consistent results are also obtained but the normalizing factors must be computed within windows centred to the studied anomaly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terra Nova, 23, 127-133, 2011 Abstract We analyse the pattern of magnetic anomalies in the Tyrrhenian back-arc basin by a simple and objective method that is able to simplify the readability of the maps and to safely identify reversely magnetized sources. This analysis is useful to better understand the reliability of recent studies indicating the presence of striped, 'mid-ocean like', magnetic anomalies in this small basin, from which spreading velocities have been calculated. Our results show that in the Vavilov and Marsili sub-basins reversely magnetized bodies are actually present, but their areal distribution is rather irregular. The resulting pattern of normally and reversely magnetized bodies does not fit with an ocean-like central expansion model. Instead, the distribution of magnetic sources may suggest that the crustal tearing induced by extension processes is not concentrated only beneath the seamounts, but may have in different times involved different areas of these sub-basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The way potential fields convey source information depends on the scale at which the field is analysed. In this sense a multiscale analysis is a useful method to study potential fields particularly when the main field contributions are caused by sources with different depths and extents. Our multiscale approach is built with a stable transformation, such as depth from extreme points. Its stability results from mixing, in a single operator, the wavenumber low-pass behaviour of the upward continuation transformation of the field with the enhancement high-pass properties of n-order derivative transformations. So, the complex reciprocal interference of several field components may be efficiently faced at several scales of the analysis and the depth to the sources may be estimated together with the homogeneity degrees of the field. In order to estimate the source boundaries we use another multiscale method, the multiscale derivative analysis, which utilizes a generalized concept of horizontal derivative and produces a set of boundary maps at different scales. We show through synthetic examples and application to the gravity field of Southern Italy that this multiscale behaviour makes this technique quite different from other source boundary estimators. The main result obtained by integrating multiscale derivative analysis with depth from extreme points is the retrieval of rather effective information of the field sources (horizontal boundaries, depth, structural index). This interpretative approach has been used along a specific transect for the analysis of the Bouguer anomaly field of Southern Apennines. It was set at such scales, so to emphasize either regional or local features along the transect. Two different classes of sources were individuated. The first one includes a broad, deep source with lateral size of 45∼50 km, at a depth of 13 km and having a 0.5 structural index. The second class includes several narrower sources located at shallowest depths, ranging from 3–6 km, with lateral size not larger than 5 km and structural indexes ranging from 1–1.5. Within a large-scale geological framework, these results could help to outline the mean structural features at crustal depths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although interleukin 13 (IL-13) is an important mediator of asthma and allergic diseases, the molecular mechanisms regulating IL-13 gene expression are not well understood. This study was designed to define the molecular mechanisms governing IL-13 gene expression in T cells. IL-13 expression was examined in human peripheral blood T cells and in the EL-4 T-cell line by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. An IL-13 promoter deletion analysis was performed using luciferase-based reporter plasmids transiently transfected into EL-4 cells by electroporation. DNA binding factors were investigated using electrophoretic mobility shift assays. In contrast to IL-4 expression, which required concomitant activation of calcium- and protein kinase C- (PKC-) dependent signalling pathways, PKC activation alone was sufficient for IL-13 protein secretion in mitogen-primed (but not resting) peripheral blood T cells, and for IL-13 mRNA expression and promoter activity in EL-4 T cells. Promoter deletion analysis localized a phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) -sensitive element to a proximal promoter region between − 109 and − 79 base pairs upstream from the IL-13 transcription start site. This promoter region supported the binding of both constitutive and PMA-inducible nuclear factors in gel shift assays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The problem of removing directional trends frequently occurs in the processing of magnetic data and also in the subsequent steps of data interpretation. The so-called corrugations are typical directional trends occurring in levelled data, which may be removed in several ways. Classical techniques are based on high-pass filtering of the data and successively filtering these transformed data with directional cosine filters. Other linear features are due to real sources, such as pipelines in shallow surveys or dike swarms in regional surveys. They should, nevertheless, be considered as noise, due to the fact that their effect is strong and tends to hide the field features related to structures of more interest. We deal with both kinds of problem, presenting the results of a study in an archaeological area of southern Italy. Decorrugation of magnetic field anomalies is performed using a method based on the excellent space–frequency localization properties of wavelet bases, allowing a very sharp filtering of the field along a selected direction. We compare this technique with the classical one in a synthetic case and find that the wavelet decorrugation is simpler and produces low distortion maps. Besides the field decorrugation, the wavelet approach was also shown to be useful in the subsequent enhancement of the measured field. In fact, we show that the wavelet analysis offers a unique framework where various filtering problems (directional, isotropic, global or local as well) may be easily solved. As regards the archaeological case, strong noisy effects from elongated sources (pipelines) were successfully removed in a sharp and local way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhanced serum IgE levels in adults and children with HIV-1 infection could be a marker of poor prognosis. HIV-1 infection is believed to involve a switch toward a "T[subH]2-like" cytokine pattern. HIV-1 gp120 from different clades is a potent stimulus for histamine release from human basophils and mast cells. Gp120 also induces IL-4 and IL-13 synthesis from basophils. It functions as a viral superantigen by interacting with the V[subH]3 region IgE to induce mediator release from human FcεRI[sup+] cells. The chemokine receptor CCR3, which binds the chemokines eotaxin and RANTES, is expressed by basophils and lung mast cells. By interacting with the CCR3 receptor on FcεRI[sup+] cells, HIV-1 Tat protein is a potent chemoattractant for basophils and lung mast cells. Tat protein also induces IL-4 and IL-13 release from basophils. Incubation of basophils with Tat protein upregulates the surface expression of the CCR3 receptor, a co-receptor of HIV-1 infection. Extracellular Tat affects the directional migration of human Fc&epsilonRI[sup+] cells, CCR3 expression and T[subH]2 cytokines release. We have shown that HIV-1 proteins gp120 and Tat trigger the release of cytokines critical for T[subH]2 polarization from FcεRI[sup+] cells through two distinct mechanisms. In addition, Tat upregulates the β-chemokine receptor CCR3, making FcεRI[sup+] cells more susceptible to infection with CCR3 tropic HIV-1 isolates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]