Hb F-Avellino [Gγ41(C7)Phe → Leu; HBG2: c.124 T > C]: A New Hemoglobin Variant Observed In A Healthy Newborn

Here we describe Hb F-Avellino [^Gγ41(C7)Phe?→?Leu; HBG2: c.124?T?>?C], a new hemoglobin (Hb) variant observed in a healthy newborn. The proband’s hemolysate was found to be mildly unstable by the isopropanol test. The occurrence of the variant was assessed by both chromatographic and electrophoretic methods. DNA sequencing analysis of the ^Gγ gene showed a T to C transition at codon 41 (TTC?>?CTC) corresponding to the Phe?→?Leu substitution. Normal functional properties have been hypothesized.     

Self-reported influenza vaccination uptake in people with chronic diseases: data from Progressi delle Aziende Sanitarie per la Salute in Italia (PASSI)

BackgroundInfluenza is an important public health problem, with potential severe consequences among people with chronic diseases. The aim of this study was to obtain reliable measures of seasonal influenza vaccine uptake in this population, otherwise not available in Italy.MethodsProgressi delle Aziende Sanitarie per la Salute in Italia (PASSI) is a nationwide surveillance system of health-related behaviours and acceptance of preventive interventions (including influenza immunisation) offered by the Italian National Health Service. Data are collected with telephone interviews at local health unit level for supporting local activities. The survey sample is randomly selected from local health unit lists of adult residents. The trend of annual vaccine coverage since 2008 was estimated for people aged 18–64 years who reported having at least one chronic disease. To obtain a sufficient sample size in subgroups, we analysed the characteristics of vaccinated people in the 2010–13 cumulative dataset. Univariate, multivariate, and logistic regression analyses were undertaken.FindingsIn 2008–13, 13 659 individuals with at least one chronic disease were interviewed. Vaccination coverage fell significantly from 29·7% (95% CI 27·2–32·4) in 2007–08 to 19·9% (18·0–22·1) in 2012–13. During 2010–13, the overall proportion of vaccinated people with a chronic disease was 25·6% (24·5–26·7). Vaccine coverage of people with diabetes (34·3%, 31·7–36·9) or cardiovascular diseases (31·8%, 29·6–34·2) was greater than that of people affected by renal failure, respiratory diseases, tumours, or chronic liver diseases (26·5% [22·5–30·7], 24·9% [23·2–26·7], 22·2% [20·0–24·6], and 20·6% [17·5–24·6], respectively). Vaccination coverage increased with age (from 13·1% [11·0–15·5] in the 18–34 year age group to 33·4% [31·9–35·1] in people aged 50–64 years); it was higher among people with a low educational level than among those with a high educational level, higher in those having economic difficulties than in those with no economic difficulties, and higher among Italian citizens than among non-citizens.InterpretationIn the past few years, prevalence of influenza vaccination in Italian adults with at least one chronic disease was well below the Ministry of Health's goal (75% minimum) and showed a downward trend. A major reason of this evolution is probably the changing public perception of the benefits and risks of vaccines. PASSI is a source of useful data not otherwise available for public health intervention.FundingItalian Ministry of Health.     

Cortical distribution of speech and language errors investigated by visual object naming and navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation

Navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS) gains increasing importance in presurgical language mapping. Although bipolar direct cortical stimulation (DCS) is regarded as the gold standard for intraoperative mapping of language-related areas, it cannot be used to map the healthy human brain due to its invasive character. Therefore, the present study employed a non-invasive virtual-lesion modality to provide a causality-confirmed cortical language map of the healthy human brain by repetitive nTMS (rTMS) with functional specifications beyond language-positive/language-negative distinction. Fifty right-handed healthy volunteers underwent rTMS language mapping of the left hemisphere combined with an object-naming task. The induced errors were categorized and frequency maps were calculated. Moreover, a principal component analysis (PCA) was performed on the basis of language-positive cortical regions for each error category. The left hemisphere was stimulated at 258–789 sites (median: 361.5 sites), and 12–241 naming errors (median: 72.5 errors) were observed. In male subjects, a total number of 2091 language errors were elicited by 9579 stimulation trains, which is equal to an error rate of 21.8 %. Within females, 10,238 stimulation trains elicited 2032 language errors (19.8 %). PCA revealed that the inferior parietal lobe (IPL) and middle frontal gyrus (MFG) were causally involved in object naming as a semantic center and an executive control center. For the first time, this study provides causality-based data and a model that approximates the distribution of language-related cortical areas grouped for different functional aspects of single-word production processes by PCA.     

Concepts and Their Dynamics: A Quantum‐Theoretic Modeling of Human Thought

We analyze different aspects of our quantum modeling approach of human concepts and, more specifically, focus on the quantum effects of contextuality, interference, entanglement, and emergence, illustrating how each of them makes its appearance in specific situations of the dynamics of human concepts and their combinations. We point out the relation of our approach, which is based on an ontology of a concept as an entity in a state changing under influence of a context, with the main traditional concept theories, that is, prototype theory, exemplar theory, and theory theory. We ponder about the question why quantum theory performs so well in its modeling of human concepts, and we shed light on this question by analyzing the role of complex amplitudes, showing how they allow to describe interference in the statistics of measurement outcomes, while in the traditional theories statistics of outcomes originates in classical probability weights, without the possibility of interference. The relevance of complex numbers, the appearance of entanglement, and the role of Fock space in explaining contextual emergence, all as unique features of the quantum modeling, are explicitly revealed in this article by analyzing human concepts and their dynamics.