Childhood Immunisation Coverage during the COVID-19 Epidemic in Italy

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected national healthcare systems worldwide, with around 282 million cumulative confirmed cases reported in over 220 countries and territories as of the end of 2021. The Italian National Health System was heavily affected, with detrimental impacts on preventive service delivery. Routine vaccination services were disrupted across the country during the first months of the pandemic, and both access to and demand for vaccines have decreased during the pandemic. In many cases, parents preferred to postpone scheduled appointments for routine paediatric vaccinations because of stay-at-home orders or fear of COVID-19 infection when accessing care. The objective of the current study was to assess the routine childhood vaccine coverage (VC) rates during the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy. We compared 2020 and 2019 VC by age group and vaccine type. The Italian Ministry of Health collected anonymised and aggregated immunisation national data through the local health authorities (LHAs). Results were considered statistically significant at a two-tailed p-value ≤ 0.05. VC rates for mandatory vaccinations decreased in 2020 compared to 2019 (range of VC rate decrease: −1% to −2.7%), while chicken pox increased (+2.2%) in 7-year-old children. Recommended vaccinations were moderately affected (range of VC rate decrease in 2020 vs. 2019: −1.4% to −8.5%), with the exception of anti-HPV in males, Men ACWY, and anti-rotavirus vaccination (VC increase 2020 vs. 2019: +1.8%, +4.7% and +9.4%, respectively). In the COVID-19 era, the implementation of coherent, transparent, and effective communication campaigns and educational programs on safe childhood vaccinations, together with the increase in the number of healthcare staff employed, is essential to support strategies to reinforce vaccination confidence and behaviour, thus avoiding health threats due to VPD during and beyond COVID-19 times.

The severity of seizures and epileptiform activity index in the assessment of antiepileptic treatment efficacy in patients with generalized tonic-clonic awakening seizures

Objective: to evaluate the role of seizure severity and epileptiform activity index (IEA) assessment in newly-diagnosed idiopathic generalized epilepsy with generalized tonic-clonic awakening seizures (GTCS).Material and methods. The study included 31 patients with newly-diagnosed generalized epilepsy with GTCS aged 14–52 years (mean age 25.06±9.3 years), which were divided into two groups depending on seizure severity: Group 1 (n=9, 29%) with <18 points, and Group 2 (n=22, 71%) with ≥18 points. Seizure severity was analysed by using National Hospital Seizure Severity Scale (NHS3). All patients underwent video-electroencephalography monitoring (8–24 hours) with IEA assessment at baseline and at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months after the beginning of treatment. Therapeutic efficacy was assessed using the criteria of seizure absence (medically induced remission), seizure rate decrease by >50% (responders), seizure rate decrease by <50% (insufficient efficacy), seizure rate increase and retention in treatment.Results. Total EAI at baseline was significantly higher in patients from Group 2 (p=0.019). Despite markedly reduced EAI level in both groups, in Group 1 (less than 18 points by NHS3) EAI was significantly lower compared to Group 2 (≥18 points) at all subsequent visits: visit 2 (p=0.038), visit 3 (p=0.035), visit 4 (p=0.047), and visit 5 (p=0.022).Conclusions. Assessing seizure severity may become an additional objective criterion while evaluating treatment efficacy.

Inertial Effect on Spontaneous Oil-Water Imbibition by Molecular Kinetic Theory

Imbibition is one of the most common physical phenomena in nature, and it plays an important role in enhanced oil recovery, hydrology, and environmental engineering. For the tight reservoirs, the imbibition method has an obvious advantage in fracturing, shut-in, and huff-puff development. Although the current imbibition studies focus on oil recovery, and the inertial effect in imbibition is neglected and its mechanism is also unclear. In this paper, the inertial effect on spontaneous oil-water imbibition at micron-scale is studied by molecular kinetic theory (MKT). The frictional coefficient in the model is a fitted parameter to match the experimental data during the total imbibition process. Then, the simulation of the initial imbibition stage is conducted and the inertial effect on imbibition is identified by the difference between the model considering the inertial effect (CI) and the model neglecting the inertial effect (NI), or by the proportion of inertial force to the total resistance. Results show that (i) with an increase in the water phase viscosity, the inertial effect time shortens, maximum imbibition height and rate decrease, and thus the inertial effect on imbibition weakens; (ii) with an increase in the oil phase viscosity, the inertial effect time changes little, the maximum imbibition height and rate decrease slightly, namely, the inertial effect depends slightly on the oil phase. (iii) with an increase in the capillary wettability (hydrophilicity), the inertial effect time shortens, the maximum imbibition rate first increases and then decreases, and the inertial effect on imbibition weakens. This work sheds light on the inertial effect on oil-water imbibition by MKT, considering the effects of dynamic contact angle, water phase viscosity, oil phase viscosity, and wettabilities, which is helpful to understand the role of inertia in the oil-water or oil-fracturing fluid imbibition process.

Predicting Active, Death and Recovery Rates of COVID-19 in Algeria Using Facebook’ Prophet Model

The coronavirus disease pandemic 2019 (COVID-19) has emerged in Wuhan province, China in December 2019 and has spread over all countries. The current study was carried out to predict active, death and cured rate of COVID 19 in Algeria for a future period of 35 days using FB prophet model. Results shoed that the active rate and the death rate decrease for the next days while the cured rate increase. The active, cured and death rates are estimated at 19.7% 78.85% and 2.55% respectively. These results highlight the importance of FB prophet model in COVID-19 prediction which could help national authorities in adopting the best preventive measures.

Efficacy assessment of levetiracetam monotherapy in newly-diagnosed epilepsy in adults using epileptiform activity index

Levetiracetam (LEV) is one of the most commonly prescribed antiepileptic drugs (AED). However, there were no studies on its efficacy and safety in terms of the correlation with epileptiform activity index (EAI) performed among the Russian population.Aim. To evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of LEV monotherapy in patients with newly-diagnosed epilepsy using epileptiform activity index (EAI) assessment.Materials and methods. The study included 107 patients (46 (43.0%) male and 61 (57.0%) female) with focal epilepsy (FE) (39.3%; n=42) or idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE) (60.7%; n=65). At each visit, video-electroencephalographic (video-EEG) monitoring was performed (baseline and in 1, 3, 6, and 12 months of the therapy). Therapeutic drug monitoring was performed at dose titration in 1 month of the therapy or in case of therapy correction. Treatment efficacy was assessed using the criteria of seizure absence (medically induced remission), seizure rate decrease by >50% (responders), seizure rate decrease by <50% – insufficient efficacy, a composite index of efficacy/tolerability (retention on treatment), and seizure rate increase compared to baseline and/or development of a new type of seizures (aggravation). Adverse events (AE) were assessed using the scale for side effects in AED treatment (SIDAED).Results. Total EAI at baseline was 5.2-fold higher in patients with IGE compared to FE patients (23.4±3.0 and 4.5±0.97, respectively). After 1 month of LEV therapy, EAI decreased to 3.4±1.1 and 1.9±0.4 in patients with IGE and FE, respectively (p<0.01). The decrease continued during the whole follow-up period. Retention on monotherapy was achieved in 82.2% (n=88/107) patients; in 87.6% (n=57/65) patients with IGE and in 73.8% (n=31/42) with FE. The rate of serious AEs during the follow-up period was 8.4% (n=9).Conclusions. LEV is an effective drug of choice for the initial treatment of newly-diagnosed FE and IGE in monotherapy along with a significant decrease in EAI. EAI is an objective measure of LEV treatment efficacy.

Sacral Reflex Characteristics of Patients with Multiple System Atrophy

Objectives. To observe and analyze the parameters of the sacral reflex and pudendal nerve somatosensory evoked potential (SSEP) in patients with multiple system atrophy (MSA) with respect to factors such as age, disease course, and subtype and provide evidence for the clinical diagnosis of MSA. Materials and Methods. A total of 51 MSA patients and 30 healthy controls were selected from the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University from May 2013 to November 2015. Electrophysiological sacral reflex detection and SSEP detection were performed using the Keypoint EMG/EP system. The extraction rate, latency, and amplitude of the sacral reflex and SSEP in the MSA group and control group were compared. Results. The sacral reflex latency and amplitude in patients with MSA were statistically different from those of the healthy controls. The latency of sacral reflex increases with the prolongation of the disease course, and the amplitude and initiation rate decrease with the prolongation of the disease course. There was no significant difference in sacral reflex latency and amplitude between MSA patients of different ages and subtypes. There was no significant difference in the latency or amplitude of SSEP between the MSA group and healthy control group. Conclusions. The latency of sacral reflex increases with the prolongation of the disease course, and the amplitude and extraction rate decrease with the prolongation of the disease course. There was no significant difference in the parameters of sacral reflex between young MSA patients and elderly patients. And there was no statistically significant difference between MSA-P subtypes and MSA-C subtypes. This trial is registered with ISRCTNCR2009041.

Rancang Bangun Sistem Monitoring dan Pendeteksi Lokasi Kebocoran Pipa Berdasarkan Analisis Debit Air Berbasis IoT

The purpose of this research is to design and realize a pipe leak detection system that can be monitored with an Android application. Water flow sensor is used to determine the flow of water, with water flow rate analysis it is possible to know the leakage area, pipe leakage rate, and the number of leaks in pipe area if there is a water flow rate decrease. The data is processed with an NodeMCU microcontroller based on Internet of Things (IoT). The accuracy of all water flow sensors after calibration is 97,53%. When testing with the determination of each leaked area the results are appropriate. The reading of each water flow rate decrease that occurs has an accuracy of determiningthe leakage rate of 90,2% while the suitability of reading the number of leakage areas depends on the detection of the leakage area and the classification of the leakage rate. The greater the water flow reads on the sensors, the precission level to determine the level of water pipe leakage is getting better, and vice versa, this is due to sensors having variable variations in flow rate readings.

Think fast! The implications of emphasizing urgency in decision-making

Evidence accumulation models (EAMs) have become the dominant explanation of how the decision-making process operates, proposing that decisions are the result of a process of evidence accumulation. The primary use of EAMs has been as "measurement tools" of the underlying decision-making process, where researchers apply EAMs to empirical data to estimate participants' task ability (i.e., the "drift rate"), response caution (i.e., the "decision threshold"), and the time taken for other processes (i.e., the "non-decision time"), making EAMs a powerful tool for discriminating between competing psychological theories. Recent studies have brought into question the mapping between the latent parameters of EAMs and the theoretical constructs that they are thought to represent, showing that emphasizing urgent responding -- which intuitively should selectively influence decision threshold -- may also influence drift rate and/or non-decision time. However, these findings have been mixed, leading to differences in opinion between experts in the field. The current study aims to provide a more conclusive answer to the implications of emphasizing urgent responding, providing a re-analyse of 6 data sets from previous studies using two different EAMs -- the diffusion model and the linear ballistic accumulator (LBA) -- with state-of-the-art methods for model selection based inference. The findings display clear evidence for a difference in conclusions between the two models, with the diffusion model suggesting that decision threshold and non-decision time decrease when urgency is emphasized, and the LBA suggesting that decision threshold and drift rate decrease when urgency is emphasized. Furthermore, although these models disagree regarding whether non-decision time or drift rate decrease under urgency emphasis, both show clear evidence that emphasizing urgency does not selectively influence decision threshold. These findings suggest that researchers should revise their assumptions about certain experimental manipulations, the specification of certain EAMs, or perhaps both.