MALDI MS-Based Investigations for SARS-CoV-2 Detection

The urgent need to fight the COVID-19 pandemic has impressively stimulated the efforts of the international scientific community, providing an extraordinary wealth of studies. After the sequence of the virus became available in early January 2020, safe and effective vaccines were developed in a time frame much shorter than everybody expected. However, additional studies are required since viral mutations have the potential of facilitating viral transmission, thus reducing the efficacy of developed vaccines. Therefore, improving the current laboratory testing methods and developing new rapid and reliable diagnostic approaches might be useful in managing contact tracing in the fight against both the original SARS-CoV-2 strain and the new, potentially fast-spreading CoV-2 variants. Mass Spectrometry (MS)-based testing methods are being explored, with the challenging promise to overcome the many limitations arising from currently used laboratory testing assays. More specifically, MALDI-MS, since its advent in the mid 1980s, has demonstrated without any doubt the great potential to overcome many unresolved analytical challenges, becoming an effective proteomic tool in several applications, including pathogen identification. With the aim of highlighting the challenges and opportunities that derive from MALDI-based approaches for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 and its variants, we extensively examined the most promising proofs of concept for MALDI studies related to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Immune response against SARS-CoV-2 variants: the role of neutralization assays

Since the emergence of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 in late 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has hindered social life and global economic activity. As of July 2021, SARS-CoV-2 has caused over four million deaths. The rapid spread and high mortality of the disease demanded the international scientific community to develop effective vaccines in a matter of months. However, unease about vaccine efficacy has arisen with the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs). Time- and cost-efficient in vitro neutralization assays are widely used to measure neutralizing antibody responses against VOCs. However, the extent to which in vitro neutralization reflects protection from infection remains unclear. Here, we describe common neutralization assays based on infectious and pseudotyped viruses and evaluate their role in testing neutralizing responses against new SARS-CoV-2 variants. Additionally, we briefly review the recent findings on the immune response elicited by available vaccines against major SARS-CoV-2 variants, including Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta.

In 1909 in Italy, a Franciscan Monk Was the First to Discover Electromagnetic Seismic Precursors

We present to the international scientific community three important works by Father Maccioni adapted into English with several parts literally translated. The investigation into the existence of an electromagnetic (EM) seismic precursor was carried on in Italy in the beginning of the twentieth century and exploited the capabilities of a specifically designed coherer. For several reasons, both the work and the author are widely unknown even in Italy. We think this is likely to be the very first historical case of a study of a seismic precursor of the EM type.

Anniversary of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Victorious 1945: Idea, Celebration Scenario, International Response

The authors focus on the celebration of the 220th anniversary of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1945. The festive events hosted both due to the anniversary, joyful victory and cease of warfare in Europe were attended by 124 delegates from 17 countries, as well as by nearly 1,000 Soviet academics. The situation was unique in its concept and inspired people with hope for world reconstruction. The occasion was widely publicized, eliciting an extensive response. The anniversary served an occasion to organize the forum where academics discussed their perception of science field in the victorious year of 1945. Based on a wide range of sources, including foreign archives first introduced to the academia, the paper presents the scenarios of the celebration of the 220th anniversary of the USSR Academy of Sciences, as well as the images of the Russian and Soviet science represented by the academic elite, and their perception by the international scientific community. The authors reveal the factors that influence the establishment and functioning of the communicative field of global science. It is concluded that in a contextual way the anniversary events featured the overestima­ted expectations of new forms of international cooperation, with various forms of collaboration being discussed. However, the triumph over the “unified science” and the establishment of the universal communicative field was temporary.

Evaluation of Inhibitory Activity In Silico of In-House Thiomorpholine Compounds between the ACE2 Receptor and S1 Subunit of SARS-CoV-2 Spike

At the end of 2019, the world was struck by the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in dire repercussions of unimaginable proportions. From the beginning, the international scientific community employed several strategies to tackle the spread of this disease. Most notably, these consisted of the development of a COVID-19 vaccine and the discovery of antiviral agents through the repositioning of already known drugs with methods such as de novo design. Previously, methylthiomorphic compounds, designed by our group as antihypertensive agents, have been shown to display an affinity with the ACE2 (angiotensin converting enzyme) receptor, a key mechanism required for SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) entry into target cells. Therefore, the objective of this work consists of evaluating, in silico, the inhibitory activity of these compounds between the ACE2 receptor and the S1 subunit of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Supported by the advances of different research groups on the structure of the coronavirus spike and the interaction of the latter with its receptor, ACE2, we carried out a computational study that examined the effect of in-house designed compounds on the inhibition of said interaction. Our results indicate that the polyphenol LQM322 is one of the candidates that should be considered as a possible anti-COVID-19 agent.

Fertility preservation surgeries and reproductive technologies in patients with early ovarian cancer and borderline tumors

Currently, available data indicate the oncological safety and high efficiency of fertility preservation surgeries and reproductive technologies in patients with early ovarian cancer. The international scientific community is increasingly discussing the importance of timely patient information and the implementation of fertility preservation strategies in patients with early ovarian cancer. Research in this area should be continued due to the lack of reliable data.

The growing international relevance of Ambiente & Água according to Scopus CiteScore results

The Ambiente & Água Journal has adopted strategies in recent years to increase its relevance within the international scientific community. The results of CiteScore, recently released for the triennium ending in 2020, indicate that the journal’s strategies are starting to show good results. Evidence of an increase in the proportion between the number of citations received versus the number of documents published is corroborated by the impact indicators from other sources, such as the Scimago Journal Rank (SJR) and Leiden University’s Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) Impact per Publication (IPP). Also positive is the fact that the journal's impact is increasing even with the increase in the number of papers published, contrary to the strategy adopted by some journals that limit the number of papers in order to increase the journal's impact.

Editorial

When we talk about science, it has various definitions thought history, as well as various types. However, Science comes from the Latin scientia and is defined as a set of knowledge obtained through observation and reasoning, systematically structured and from which general principles and laws are deduced with predictive and experimentally verifiable capacity (Douven, 2002; RAE, 2020). Furthermore, science is about real things that happen in the world; science tries to provide a consistent understanding of these things (Derry, 2018) and I selected this general concept because through the scientific method we can do science, and science helps to break paradigms (Arndt, 1985; Feder, 2017) and allows the advancement of knowledge; nonetheless, there are things that science has not yet explained such as art or poetry but we cannot return to obscurantism for things that science does not yet explain (Denegri, 2008). According to (Schimel, 2012) affirms that the objective of a researcher who publishes is that he or she should be cited; nonetheless, I agree with these authors (Fiske & Campbell, 1992) the most important before being cited is to solve problems in medicine, agriculture, ecology and among other disciplines as well. The National University of Jaen was founded on December 12, 2008, in Cajamarca, Peru, and makes a great effort to promote science at different geographical scales and fields through its Multidisciplinary Journal Pakamuros and calls on the International Scientific Community to address the Global problems that afflict us today as the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 and Global Warming and propose solutions through the scientific method and inter-institutional cooperation for the benefit of humanity.

Virtual Geosites as Innovative Tools for Geoheritage Popularization: A Case Study from Eastern Iceland

In this paper, we have adopted a modern, cutting-edge methodology to make geoheritage sites (geosites) available and explorable worldwide, through both immersive and non-immersive virtual reality, particularly suitable also in COVID-19 times. In doing this, we have focused our attention on five different outcroppings, shallow magma bodies in Iceland: such geological objects, although being often underestimated, are, on the contrary, very suitable for geoheritage popularization purposes. These outstanding outcrops have been transformed in virtual outcrops (VOs) through UAV-based photogrammetry 3D modelling, and have been uploaded on a brand-new, dedicated online resource (GeoVires Virtual Reality Lab for Earth Sciences) which is accessible worldwide for Earth Science teaching and communication. As already stressed above, the choice of these Icelandic shallow magma bodies has been suggested by the fact that such geological objects, although extraordinarily challenging both in terms of geotourism and teaching, are seldom the object of attention from the international scientific community. The five VOs are defined here as virtual geosites (VGs) because they are, indeed, geosites that are fully accessible with a smartphone, a tablet, or a PC; moreover, each is provided with a detailed description and notes available during 3D exploration. Our work could represent a model for future, similar efforts aimed at popularizing Earth Sciences and making geoheritage available to a broad public through VGs.

Propaganda Activities of the Norwegian Authorities in the Crisis Situation of the Early 20th Century: Fridtjof Nansen and Sven Hedin

This article examines the process of including representatives of the scientific and academic circles of Norway and Sweden — famous travelers and researchers Fridtjof Nansen and Sven Hedin — in the political struggle and propaganda activities. In the 19th — early 20th centuries, the scientist became a media personality, whose international and national authority gives him a new status of a national hero, includes him in the political struggle. The status and fame of the Swedish and Norwegian travelers were almost equal, as well as their weight in the international scientific community. Thats why their figures were used by the authorities of Sweden and Norway in a polemical discussion on the pages of the British press in 1905, defending their own positions in the Swedish-Norwegian conflict. The main source is the publications of F. Nansen and S. Hedin in “The Times”. The purpose of this work is to analyze their articles, identify the main discussion topics and the argumentation used. As a result of the research, the author comes to the conclusion that the publication activity of F. Nansen in the British press was essentially an unofficial diplomacy, the main task of which was to enlist the support of the British public and the authorities, to bring the Swedish-Norwegian contradictions from the status of a “private matter” to the international arena. Swedish propaganda, in fact, was defensive and exculpatory in nature, the main “trump card” of which was the factor of the “Russian threat”.