SARS-CoV-2 membrane protein-specific antibodies from critically ill SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals interact with Fc receptor-expressing cells but do not neutralize the virus.

The membrane (M) glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 is one of the key viral proteins regulating virion assembly and morphogenesis. Immunologically, the M protein is a major source of peptide antigens driving T cell responses, and most individuals who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 make antibodies to the N-terminal, surface-exposed peptide of the M protein. We now report that although the M protein is abundant in the viral particle, antibodies to the surface-exposed N-terminal epitope of M do not appear to neutralize the virus. M protein-specific antibodies do, however, activate antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity and cytokine secretion by primary human natural killer cells. Interestingly, while patients with severe or mild disease make comparable levels of M antigen-binding antibodies, M-specific antibodies from the serum of critically ill patients are significantly more potent activators of antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity than antibodies found in individuals with mild or asymptomatic infection.

Transfusion-associated adverse events incidence and severity after the implementation of an active hemovigilance program with 24 h follow-up. A prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Hemovigilance (HV) is usually based on voluntary reports (passive HV). Our aim is to ascertain credible incidence, severity, and mortality of transfusion-associated adverse events (TAAEs) using an active HV program. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Prospective cohort study to estimate transfusion risk after 46,488 transfusions in 5830 patients, using an active HV program with follow-up within the first 24 h after transfusion. We compared these results to those with the previously established passive HV program during the same 30 months of the study. We explored factors associated with the occurrence of TAAEs using generalized estimating equations models. RESULTS: With the active HV program TAAEs incidence was 57.3 (95% CI, 50.5-64.2) and mortality 1.1 (95% CI, 0.13-2.01) per 10,000 transfusions. Incidence with the new surveillance model was 14.0 times higher than with the passive. Most events occurred when transfusions had already finished (60.2%); especially pulmonary events (80.4%). Three out of five deaths and 50.3% of severe TAAEs were pulmonary. In the multivariate analysis surgical patients had half TAAEs risk when compared to medical patients (OR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.34-0.78) and women had nearly twice the risk of a pulmonary event compared to men (OR, 1.84; 95% CI, 1.03-3.32). Patient's age, blood component type, or blood component shelf-life were unrelated to TAAEs risk. DISCUSSION: Active hemovigilance programs provide additional data which may lead to better recognition and understanding of TAAEs and their frequency and severity.

The influence of different musical modes and tempi on time perception.

Studies involving the interaction between musical mode and tempo on time perception have been carried out through comparisons between a single major mode and a single minor mode, presented in different tempi. However, classifying the modes only into major and minor has not been considered sufficient. The purpose of this study was to verify the influence of the musical mode and tempo interaction on time perception analyzing the effect of different modes performed in the slow, moderate and fast tempi. Fifty undergraduate students of both sexes individually listened to 12 musical excerpts (4 modes - Ionian, Mixolydian, Dorian and Aeolian - and 3 tempi - 72 bpm, 114 bpm, and 184 bpm), one excerpt at a time. After each excerpt, the participants performed a time-reproduction task, in which they had to press a button (beginning of the task), recal the duration of each excerpt and press a button again (end of the task). Results showed no interaction between mode and tempi and no differences between musical modes, regardless of tempo. However, regardless of the mode, excerpts in slow tempo was judged shorter than in moderate and fast tempi, respectively, and excerpts in moderate tempo was judged shorter than excerpts in fast tempo. These results can contribute to understanding the psychological processes of attention, memory and expectancy related to the perception of time in music listening situations.

A multicenter randomized open-label clinical trial for convalescent plasma in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia.

BACKGROUNDPassive immunotherapy with convalescent plasma (CP) is a potential treatment for COVID-19. Evidence from controlled clinical trials is inconclusive.METHODSWe conducted a randomized, open-label, controlled clinical trial at 27 hospitals in Spain. Patients had to be admitted for COVID-19 pneumonia within 7 days from symptom onset and not on mechanical ventilation or high-flow oxygen devices. Patients were randomized 1:1 to treatment with CP in addition to standard of care (SOC) or to the control arm receiving only SOC. The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients in categories 5 (noninvasive ventilation or high-flow oxygen), 6 (invasive mechanical ventilation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation [ECMO]), or 7 (death) at 14 days. Primary analysis was performed in the intention-to-treat population.RESULTSBetween April 4, 2020, and February 5, 2021, 350 patients were randomly assigned to either CP (n = 179) or SOC (n = 171). At 14 days, proportion of patients in categories 5, 6, or 7 was 11.7% in the CP group versus 16.4% in the control group (P = 0.205). The difference was greater at 28 days, with 8.4% of patients in categories 5-7 in the CP group versus 17.0% in the control group (P = 0.021). The difference in overall survival did not reach statistical significance (HR 0.46, 95% CI 0.19-1.14, log-rank P = 0.087).CONCLUSIONCP showed a significant benefit in preventing progression to noninvasive ventilation or high-flow oxygen, invasive mechanical ventilation or ECMO, or death at 28 days. The effect on the predefined primary endpoint at 14 days and the effect on overall survival were not statistically significant.TRIAL REGISTRATIONClinicaltrials.gov, NCT04345523.FUNDINGGovernment of Spain, Instituto de Salud Carlos III.

Temporal order of musical keys and subjective estimates of time.

The aim of this study was to observe the influence of the temporal order of musical keys involved in sudden modulations, which implies compositional developments in clockwise and counterclockwise directions of the circle of fifths, on subjective time estimations. Seventy-five undergraduate students from Universidade de Ribeirão Preto participated in this experiment, which consisted of listening to a modulating musical stimulus and retrospectively reproducing the duration with the aid of a stopwatch. The results showed that reverse sudden tonal modulation in the counterclockwise direction or, for instance, the temporal order from the original key of A-major to the arrival at the destination key of C-major, elicited shorter time estimations than the clockwise direction or, for instance, the temporal order from original key of C-major to the arrival at the destination key of A-major. These data were interpreted using the Expected Development Fraction model that describes the development of expectations when an inter-key distance is traversed during a certain time interval. This expected development is longer than the perceived duration, leading to the underestimation of time.

Music, emotion, and time perception: the influence of subjective emotional valence and arousal?

The present study used a temporal bisection task with short (<2 s) and long (>2 s) stimulus durations to investigate the effect on time estimation of several musical parameters associated with emotional changes in affective valence and arousal. In order to manipulate the positive and negative valence of music, Experiments 1 and 2 contrasted the effect of musical structure with pieces played normally and backwards, which were judged to be pleasant and unpleasant, respectively. This effect of valence was combined with a subjective arousal effect by changing the tempo of the musical pieces (fast vs. slow) (Experiment 1) or their instrumentation (orchestral vs. piano pieces). The musical pieces were indeed judged more arousing with a fast than with a slow tempo and with an orchestral than with a piano timbre. In Experiment 3, affective valence was also tested by contrasting the effect of tonal (pleasant) vs. atonal (unpleasant) versions of the same musical pieces. The results showed that the effect of tempo in music, associated with a subjective arousal effect, was the major factor that produced time distortions with time being judged longer for fast than for slow tempi. When the tempo was held constant, no significant effect of timbre on the time judgment was found although the orchestral music was judged to be more arousing than the piano music. Nevertheless, emotional valence did modulate the tempo effect on time perception, the pleasant music being judged shorter than the unpleasant music.

Time changes with the embodiment of another's body posture.

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the perception of presentation durations of pictures of different body postures was distorted as function of the embodied movement that originally produced these postures. Participants were presented with two pictures, one with a low-arousal body posture judged to require no movement and the other with a high-arousal body posture judged to require considerable movement. In a temporal bisection task with two ranges of standard durations (0.4/1.6 s and 2/8 s), the participants had to judge whether the presentation duration of each of the pictures was more similar to the short or to the long standard duration. The results showed that the duration was judged longer for the posture requiring more movement than for the posture requiring less movement. However the magnitude of this overestimation was relatively greater for the range of short durations than for that of longer durations. Further analyses suggest that this lengthening effect was mediated by an arousal effect of limited duration on the speed of the internal clock system.

Prospective evaluation of emergency versus delayed laparoscopic cholecystectomy for early cholecystitis.

Treatment of acute cholecystitis is still under debate. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of early laparoscopic cholecystectomy (ELC) in comparison with conservative treatment followed by delayed laparoscopic cholecystectomy (DLC) in the management of acute cholecystitis. This prospective comparative study involved two groups of patients presenting with acute cholecystitis within 72 hours of the onset of symptoms. ELC was performed in 82 consecutive patients, whereas DLC was performed in 87 patients who previously underwent medical treatment. Surgical variables, hospital stay, and postoperative morbidity were evaluated in both groups. Time of surgery and conversion rate were lower in the ELC group. Postoperative morbidity was similar in both groups. Overall hospital stay was shorter in the ELC group. ELC within 72 hours of the onset of acute cholecystitis is a safe procedure with better results than DLC in terms of surgical timing, conversion rate, and hospital stay.