ABSTRACT
The post-COVID-19 condition is defined by the World Health Organization as the persistence of symptoms or development of new symptoms three months after the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection, lasting for at least two months without a clear explanation. Neuropsychiatric disorders associated with this condition include asthenia, memory and concentration problems, and sleep disturbances. Our study aims to investigate sleep patterns following SARS-CoV-2 infection using EEG findings and a sleep quality questionnaire completed by parents (Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children-SDSC). Notably, our investigation is based on a convenience sample. The patients in our sample, aged 1 to 14 years, are not currently taking any medications; rather, they are undergoing follow-up assessments at the Child Neuropsychiatry department of the University Hospital of Messina for neurodevelopmental evaluations. Specifically, we are analyzing amplitude and power spectrum data in the first five minutes of NREM2 sleep, calculated from EEG recordings obtained via bipolar leads within three months after the onset of the disease. These results will be compared with controls performed on the same subjects in the six months preceding the infection. The focus of the study was sleep spindles, which are generated by the thalamocortical systems and play a role in sleep modulation, memory, and learning. Preliminary analysis suggests a predominant increase in the slow component of the spindles in the right-frontal lead.
ABSTRACT
HIV/AIDS is considered a risk factor for increased mortality due to COVID-19. For this reason, it is essential to include this population in vaccination campaigns. Studies found that antibodies are lower in HIV+ patients than in healthy individuals. The aim of this study was to assess the immune response in a cohort of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccination in order to evaluate the role played by the HIV infection in the efficacy of this vaccine. We carried out a cross-sectional study in the period April-September 2021, involving a cohort of PLWH and a cohort of HIV-uninfected people as the control group. The efficacy of vaccination was high in both groups despite a slight and not significant difference between them. However, important differences were found according to the intensity of the immune response. Specifically, while in the HIV+ group almost a quarter of people had a low response, it is important to remark that the control group had only a high or intermediate response after vaccination. Our results suggest the high efficacy of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in PLWH and the importance to vaccinate against COVID-19 in these patients in order to increase their protection.
ABSTRACT
During the host location process, egg parasitoids can eavesdrop on chemical cues released from immature and adult hosts. These indirect host-related cues are highly detectable, but of low reliability because they lead egg parasitoid females to an area where oviposition is likely to occur rather then providing wasps with direct information on the presence of eggs and their location. In the host-parasitoid associations between true bugs and their scelionid egg parasitoids, female wasps perceive the chemical residues left by host adults walking on substrates as contact kairomones, displaying a characteristic arrestment posture. In this study, we demonstrated that epicuticular waxes of leaves of two vegetable crops, broad bean, Vicia faba and collard greens, Brassica oleracea, mediate the foraging behaviour of Trissolcus basalis (Wollaston) by adsorbing contact kairomones from adults of Nezara viridula (L.). Trissolcus basalis females showed no response when released on the adaxial leaf surface of broad bean or collard green plants with intact cuticular wax layers that had not been exposed to bugs, whereas wasps displayed the arrestment posture when intact leaves were contaminated by chemical residues from host females. Adaxial leaf surfaces that were dewaxed with an aqueous solution of gum arabic and afterwards contaminated by N. viridula females elicited no arrestment responses from wasp females. Similarly, leaves contaminated by host females and subsequently dewaxed did not elicit responses from female wasps. These findings reveal the important role of plant waxes in N. viridula-T. basalis semiochemical communication.
