Optics@home: Active remote learning on geometrical and physical optics

Optics@home is a learning path developed under the Italian Project Piano Lauree Scientifiche in Physics at the University of Salento with the aim of involving high school students in experimental scientific laboratories. Due to the health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the university laboratories were not accessible to students, so we were forced to modify and innovate our laboratory teaching methodologies. In detail, we proposed in-depth optics spacing from the geometrical to the physical one in remote teaching. © 2022 Societa Italiana di Fisica. All rights reserved.

Dynamic assessment of interleukin-6 during hemodialysis and mortality in COVID 19

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The impact of the newly discovered severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causing coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) in hemodialysis patients remains poorly characterized. Some hemodialysis techniques reduce systemic inflammation but their impact on COVID-19 has not been addressed. The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate factors associated to mortality in COVID-19 hemodialysis patients, including the impact of reducing interleukin-6 using a cytokine adsorbent filter. METHOD: This is a prospective single-center study including 16 hemodialysis patients with COVID-19. All were dialyzed using a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) filter. Interleukin-6 levels were obtained before and after the first admission hemodialysis session and at one week. Also we collected serum samples from 8 patients of our unit as controls: 4 in online hemodiafiltration (OLHDF) and 4 in high-flux hemodialysis Baseline comorbidities, laboratory values, chest X-ray and treatments were recorded and compared between survivors and non-survivors. RESULTS: Sixteen patients were included (13 males, mean age 72±15 years). Four patients (25%) died. Factors associated to mortality were dialysis vintage (p=0.01), the presence of infiltrates in chest X-ray (p=0.032), serum C-reactive protein (p=0.05) and lactate dehydrogenase (p=0.02) at one week, the requirement of oxygen therapy (p=0.02) and the use of anticoagulation (p<0.01). At admission, post-dialysis interleukin-6 levels were higher (p<0.01) in non-survivors and these patients differed from survivors in the reduction of interleukin-6 levels during the dialysis session despite using a PMMA filter (survivors vs non survivors (25 [17-53]% vs -3 [-109-12] %, p=0.04). CONCLUSION: In hemodialysis COVID-19 patients, a positive balance of interleukin-6 during the session was associated to higher mortality.