Lilian Ferri Anal ##TOP##
Boron-doped diamond has been deposited over a Mo substrate by microwave plasma CVD using methane and hydrogen. Boron doping of diamond has been achieved in situ by using a solid boron source while growing the diamond. Impedance spectroscopy of diamond in 0.5 M NaCl solution has been studied. We have observed two time constants at the diamond/solution interface. Solution resistance was found to be constant irrespective of the electrode in the same electrolyte. DC polarization techniques such as linear and Tafel polarization have been used to evaluate the doped diamond/Mo and Mo for corrosion resistance characteristics interms of charge-transfer coefficients and corrosion rate. Cyclic voltammetry has been used to evaluate the doped diamond/Mo to study the background current response and the redox kinetics of ferri/ferrocyanide in 0.5M NaCl solution.
lilian ferri anal
Monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapy is one of the most promising immunotherapies that have shown the potential to prevent or neutralize the effects of COVID-19 in patients at very early stages, with a few formulations recently approved by the European and American medicine agencies. However, a main bottleneck for their general implementation resides in the time-consuming, laborious, and highly-specialized techniques employed for the manufacturing and assessing of these therapies, excessively increasing their prices and delaying their administration to the patients. We propose a biomimetic nanoplasmonic biosensor as a novel analytical technique for the screening and evaluation of COVID-19 mAb therapies in a simpler, faster, and reliable manner. By creating an artificial cell membrane on the plasmonic sensor surface, our label-free sensing approach enables real-time monitoring of virus-cell interactions as well as direct analysis of antibody blocking effects in only 15 min assay time. We have achieved detection limits in the 102 TCID50/mL range for the study of SARS-CoV-2 viruses, which allows to perform neutralization assays by only employing a low-volume sample with common viral loads. We have demonstrated the accuracy of the biosensor for the evaluation of two different neutralizing antibodies targeting both Delta and Omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2, with half maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC50) determined in the ng/mL range. Our user-friendly and reliable technology could be employed in biomedical and pharmaceutical laboratories to accelerate, cheapen, and simplify the development of effective immunotherapies for COVID-19 and other serious infectious diseases or cancer.
BACKGROUND: There is scarce evidence on fourth doses of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. We have evaluated the humoral response and effectivity of the fourth dose in the CKD spectrum: non-dialysis CKD (ND-CKD), hemodialysis (HD), peritoneal dialysis (PD) and kidney transplant (KT) recipients. METHODS: This is a prespecified analysis of the prospective, observational, multicentric SENCOVAC study. In patients with CKD who had received a complete initial vaccination and one or two boosters and had anti-Spike antibody determinations 6 and 12 months after the initial vaccination, we analyzed factors associated to persistent negative humoral response and to higher anti-Spike antibody titers as well as the efficacy of vaccination on COVID-19 severity. RESULTS: Of 2186 patients (18% KT, 8% PD, 69% HD and 5% ND-CKD), 30% had received a fourth dose. The fourth dose increased anti-Spike antibody titers in HD (P = 0.001) and ND-CKD (P = 0.014) patients and seroconverted 72% of previously negative patients. Higher anti-Spike antibody titers at 12 months were independently associated to repeated exposure to antigen (fourth dose, previous breakthrough infections), previous anti-Spike antibody titers and not being a KT. Breakthrough COVID-19 was registered in 137 (6%) patients, of whom 5% required admission. Admitted patients had prior titers below 620 UI/ml and median values were lower (P = 0.020) than in non-admitted patients. CONCLUSIONS: A fourth vaccine dose increased anti-Spike antibody titers or seroconverted many CKD patients, but those with the highest need for a vaccine booster (i.e. those with lower pre-booster antibody titers or KT recipients) derived the least benefit in terms of antibody titers. Admission for breakthrough COVID-19 was associated with low anti-Spike antibody titers.
Background: Patients on hemodialysis are at high-risk for complications derived from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The present analysis evaluated the impact of a booster vaccine dose and breakthrough severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections on humoral immunity 3 months after the booster dose. Methods: This is a multicentric and prospective study assessing immunoglobulin G anti-Spike antibodies 6 and 9 months after initial SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in patients on hemodialysis that had also received a booster dose before the 6-month assessment (early booster) or between the 6- and 9-month assessments (late booster). The impact of breakthrough infections, type of vaccine, time from the booster and clinical variables were assessed. Results: A total of 711 patients [67% male, median age (range) 67 (20-89) years] were included. Of these, 545 (77%) received an early booster and the rest a late booster. At 6 months, 64 (9%) patients had negative anti-Spike antibody titers (3% of early booster and 29% of late booster patients, P = .001). At 9 months, 91% of patients with 6-month negative response had seroconverted and there were no differences in residual prevalence of negative humoral response between early and late booster patients (0.9% vs 0.6%, P = .693). During follow-up, 35 patients (5%) developed breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection. Antibody titers at 9 months were independently associated with mRNA-1273 booster (P = .001), lower time from booster (P = .043) and past breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection (P
The global sanitary crisis caused by the emergence of the respiratory virus SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 outbreak has revealed the urgent need for rapid, accurate, and affordable diagnostic tests to broadly and massively monitor the population in order to properly manage and control the spread of the pandemic. Current diagnostic techniques essentially rely on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which provide the required sensitivity and specificity. However, its relatively long time-to-result, including sample transport to a specialized laboratory, delays massive detection. Rapid lateral flow tests (both antigen and serological tests) are a remarkable alternative for rapid point-of-care diagnostics, but they exhibit critical limitations as they do not always achieve the required sensitivity for reliable diagnostics and surveillance. Next-generation diagnostic tools capable of overcoming all the above limitations are in demand, and optical biosensors are an excellent option to surpass such critical issues. Label-free nanophotonic biosensors offer high sensitivity and operational robustness with an enormous potential for integration in compact autonomous devices to be delivered out-of-the-lab at the point-of-care (POC). Taking the current COVID-19 pandemic as a critical case scenario, we provide an overview of the diagnostic techniques for respiratory viruses and analyze how nanophotonic biosensors can contribute to improving such diagnostics. We review the ongoing published work using this biosensor technology for intact virus detection, nucleic acid detection or serological tests, and the key factors for bringing nanophotonic POC biosensors to accurate and effective COVID-19 diagnosis on the short term.
Objetivo: Projetar e validar uma escala para medir a carga de trabalho de enfermagem em Unidades de Internaçao de Adultos com base na Classificaçao de Intervençöes de Enfermagem (NIC). Métodos: Estudo analítico, descritivo, observacional, prospectivo, utilizando principalmente metodologia de pesquisa qualitativa, por meio de grupos focais, comité de especialistas e entrevistas individuais, para validar uma Escala de Mediçao da Carga de Trabalho em Unidades de Internaçao de Adultos, a partir das intervençöes selecionadas (NIC), com base nas características inerentes a tais unidades. Foi utilizada seleçao aleatoria para determinar os participantes (enfermeiros e especialistas) e é representativa das unidades de hospitalizaçâo em estudo. O estudo foi realizado de outubro de 2018 a abril de 2019. Resultados: Nao apenas os grupos focais, mas também as entrevistas individuais e o comité de especialistas demonstraram concordancia sobre a importancia de se obter um instrumento para medir a carga de trabalho validado pelos próprios profissionais e representativo de seu trabalho, com linguagem padronizada e adaptada a saúde real. A análise quantitativa conduzida pelo comite de especialistas mostra uma maior relevancia (91,67%) nos itens: "Prevençâo" e "Educaçâo para a saúde", bem como a consistencia com a construto e a redaçâo apropriada em 99% dos itens selecionados. Os avaliadores mantiveram a açâo em todos os itens com uma taxa de aceitaçâo de 75% a 100%. Conclusāo: O estudo qualitativo realizado fornece os dados necessários para a concepçâo e validaçâo de uma escala para medir as cargas de trabalho de enfermagem, identificadas a partir das intervençöes de enfermagem (NIC), como indicadores da gestäo de recursos humanos.Alternate :Objetivo: Proyectar y validar una escala para medir la carga de trabajo de enfermería en unidades de internación de adultos con base en la Clasificación de Intervenciones de Enfermería (NIC). Métodos: Estudio analítico, descriptivo, observacional, prospectivo, que utilizó principalmente metodología de investigación cualitativa, por medio de grupos focales, comité de especialistas y entrevistas individuales, para validar una Escala de Medición de Carga de Trabajo en Unidades de Internación de Adultos, a partir de las intervenciones seleccionadas (NIC), con base en las características inherentes a tales unidades. Se utilizó selección aleatoria para definir los participantes (enfermeros y especialistas), que es representativa de las unidades de hospitalización en estudio. El estudio fue realizado de octubre de 2018 a abril de 2019. Resultados: No solo los grupos focales, como también las entrevistas individuales y el comité de especialistas demostraron concordancia sobre la importancia de obtener un instrumento para medir la carga de trabajo, validado por los propios profesionales y representativo de su trabajo, con un lenguaje estandarizado y adaptado a la salud real. El análisis cuantitativo conducido por el comité de especialistas muestra una mayor relevancia (91,67 %) en los ítems: "Prevención" y "Educación para la salud", así como una consistencia respecto a la elaboración y redacción apropiada en el 99 % de los ítems seleccionados. Los evaluadores mantuvieron la acción en todos los ítems con un índice de aceptación de 75 % a 100 %. Conclusión: El estudio cualitativo realizado proporciona los datos necesarios para la elaboración y validación de una escala para medir la carga de trabajo en enfermería, identificada a partir de las intervenciones de enfermería (NIC), como indicadores de la gestión de recursos humanos.Alternate :Objective: To design and validate a scale to measure nursing workloads in Adult Hospitalization Units based on Nursing Interventions (NIC). Methods: Analytical, descriptive, observational, prospective study, using mainly qualitative research methodology, by means of focus groups, committee of experts and individual interviews, to validate a Workload Measurement Scale in Adult Hosp talization Units, from the selected interventions (NIC) on a basis of the inherent characteristics of such units. A random selection was used to determine the participants (nurses and experts) and it is representative of the hospitalization units under study. It was carried out from October 2018 to April 2019. Results: Not only the focus groups but also the individual interviews and the committee of experts conducted agree on the importance of obtaining an instrument to measure workloads validated by the professionals themselves and representative of their work, with standardized language and adapted to actual healthcare. The quantitative analysis conducted by the committee of experts shows a highest relevance (91,67%) in the items: "Prevention" and "Health education", as well as consistency with the construct and appropriate wording in 99% of the items selected. Evaluators maintained the action on all items with a 75% to 100% acceptance rate. Conclusion: The qualitative study carried out provides the necessary data for the design and validation of a scale to measure nursing workloads, identified from the nursing interventions (NIC), as indicators of human resources management. 041b061a72