TAPPE DI INTEGRAZIONE. FORMAZIONE CIVICA E INFORMAZIONE SULLA VITA CIVILE

Il testo Tappe d’integrazione prodotto nell’ambito di un progetto cofinanziato dall’Unione Europea e dal Ministero dell’Interno italiano, presenta una serie di materiali semplici e operativi elaborati dal Centro Come e dai docenti impegnati nei corsi di italiano per stranieri della rete della Cooperativa “Farsi prossimo” - Caritas regionali per accompagnare i primi passi dell’integrazione in Italia attraverso la conoscenza della città e dei servizi per tutti; le informazioni sull’uso dei servizi e delle opportunità; il sostegno per l’assunzione di ruoli sociali comuni, quali quello di lavoratore, genitore, paziente, consumatore...; l’esplicitazione dei diritti e dei doveri comuni.Il testo adotta il punto di vista dell’immigrato di recente arrivo e cerca di mettersi nei suoi panni per rispondere alle domande d’informazione più immediate e alle necessità proprie della prima fase di inserimento.Può essere utilizzato in classe, nell’ambito dei percorsi di formazione linguistica, proponendo quindi l’italiano per vivere e per fare, il lessico e le strutture linguistiche legate alla prima comunicazione e al livello cosiddetto di “sopravvivenza”. Può essere utilizzato anche nelle sessioni di “formazione civica e informazione sulla vita civile”, rivolte agli immigrati di recente arrivo che sottoscrivono l’accordo di integrazione o che devono acquisire i crediti necessari per il permesso di soggiorno.I materiali informativi sono stati costruiti dai docenti – sulla base di un’idea progettuale e di un format condivisi – proprio grazie alla disponibilità dei corsisti, i quali hanno vi hanno messo la loro faccia, ma hanno anche contribuito a definire meglio la storia, a precisare le domande, le situazioni e i bisogni, a indicare le urgenze e le mosse da intraprendere.La particolarità del testo Tappe d’integrazione sta quindi anche nel processo che ha portato alla sua realizzazione e che ha visto gli immigrati coinvolti in prima persona nel loro cammino d’integrazione.Stages of integrationCivic education and information on civil lifeThe text “Stages of integration”, written as part of a project co-financed by the European Union and the Italian Ministry of the Interior, presents a number of simple easy-to-use materials designed by the CENTRO COME and by the teachers engaged in the Italian language courses for foreigners within the Cooperative network “FARSI PROSSIMO” - CARITAS REGIONALI to facilitate the first steps in integration in Italy through knowledge of the city and the services available; information on the use of these services and opportunities; support for assuming common social roles, such as that of worker, parent, patient, consumer...; the explanation of common rights and duties.The text adopts the point of view of a newly arrived immigrant and tries to respond from this viewpoint to requests for necessary information and to needs specific to the first phase of integration.It can be used in the classroom as part of language training, presenting the Italian needed in everyday life, the vocabulary and linguistic structures related to basic communication at the so-called “survival” level. It can also be used during “civic education and information on civil life” presentations, for newly arrived immigrants who sign an integration agreement or who need to acquire the credits necessary for a residence permit.The information materials were designed by teachers – who worked together on this project and created a shared format - thanks to the willingness of the participants, who helped to better define the story, clarify the questions, situations and needs, indicating what was urgent and needed to be addressed.The peculiarity of “Stages of integration” is therefore also in the process that led to its creation, featuring immigrants personally involved in their journey of integration

Left atrial trajectory impairment in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy disclosed by geometric morphometrics and parallel transport

The analysis of full Left Atrium (LA) deformation and whole LA deformational trajectory in time has been poorly investigated and, to the best of our knowledge, seldom discussed in patients with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. Therefore, we considered 22 patients with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) and 46 healthy subjects, investigated them by three-dimensional Speckle Tracking Echocardiography, and studied the derived landmark clouds via Geometric Morphometrics with Parallel Transport. Trajectory shape and trajectory size were different in Controls versus HCM and their classification powers had high AUC (Area Under the Receiving Operator Characteristic Curve) and accuracy. The two trajectories were much different at the transition between LA conduit and booster pump functions. Full shape and deformation analyses with trajectory analysis enabled a straightforward perception of pathophysiological consequences of HCM condition on LA functioning. It might be worthwhile to apply these techniques to look for novel pathophysiological approaches that may better define atrio-ventricular interaction

Clinical global impression-severity score as a reliable measure for routine evaluation of remission in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders

Aims: This study aimed to compare the performance of Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) symptom severity criteria established by the Remission in Schizophrenia Working Group (RSWG) with criteria based on Clinical Global Impression (CGI) severity score. The 6-month duration criterion was not taken into consideration. Methods: A convenience sample of 112 chronic psychotic outpatients was examined. Symptomatic remission was evaluated according to RSWG severity criterion and to a severity criterion indicated by the overall score obtained at CGI-Schizophrenia (CGI-SCH) rating scale (≤3) (CGI-S). Results: Clinical remission rates of 50% and 49.1%, respectively, were given by RSWG and CGI-S, with a significant level of agreement between the two criteria in identifying remitted and non-remitted cases. Mean scores at CGI-SCH and PANSS scales were significantly higher among remitters, independent of the remission criteria adopted. Measures of cognitive functioning were largely independent of clinical remission evaluated according to both RSWG and CGI-S. When applying RSWG and CGI-S criteria, the rates of overall good functioning yielded by Personal and Social Performance scale (PSP) were 32.1% and 32.7%, respectively, while the mean scores at PSP scale differed significantly between remitted and non-remitted patients, independent of criteria adopted. The proportion of patients judged to be in a state of well-being on Social Well-Being Under Neuroleptics-Short Version scale (SWN-K) were, respectively, 66.1% and 74.5% among remitters according to RSWG and CGI-S; the mean scores at the SWN scale were significantly higher only among remitters according to CGI-S criteria. Conclusions: CGI severity criteria may represent a valid and user-friendly alternative for use in identifying patients in remission, particularly in routine clinical practic

Immunoproteomics characterization of allergenic and non-allergenic tropomyosin orthologs

Background The digestion pattern of proteins plays a key role in allergenicity. If the enzymatic digestion is not efficient, bigger peptides/proteins can persist and cause sensitization. Tropomyosin represents the major allergen of crustaceans, which is a highly conserved protein present in muscle cells of vertebrates and invertebrates. The hypothesis of the current work is that shrimp tropomyosin (TM) is not fully digested or exhibits a digestion pattern that generates some peptides that can be immunogenic. To assess this hypothesis, both purified and recombinant chicken and shrimp TM orthologs were in vitro digested and analyzed for their degradation and immunoreactivity pattern. Methods One milligram of both shrimp and chicken TM orthologues has been processed through simulated oral, gastric and intestinal digestion using INFOGEST protocol. The cleavage pattern was subsequently analysed by proteomics and immunoproteomics using 1D and 2D tricine gel electrophoresis coupled with mass spectrometry. The immunoreactivity pattern was evaluated using 1D immunoblotting against serum (IgE and IgG) of patients allergic to shrimp TM (allergen Pen a 1). Results 2D Tricine-SDS-PAGE analysis revealed that chicken TM ortholog was sensitive to proteolytic activity during stimulated gastric digestion with pepsin at low pH, in contrast to shrimp TM ortholog that was not cleaved. These results were consistent with the immunoreactivity assays, which demonstrated a high reactivity of both IgE and IgG against shrimp TM after oral and gastric digestion and no reactivity against chicken TM. Conclusion The resistance of shrimp TM ortholog to gastric simulated digestion supports the hypothesis that undigested proteins may enhance the possibility of sensitization process. Considering the importance of protein cleavage before absorption it can be concluded that simulated gastric digestion coupled to the used immunoproteomics approach could represent a starting point for the evaluation of allergenicity of novel foods

Trends in Net Survival from Vulvar Squamous Cell Carcinoma in Italy (1990–2015)

Objective: In many Western countries, survival from vulvar squamous cell carcinoma (VSCC) has been stagnating for decades or has increased insufficiently from a clinical perspective. In Italy, previous studies on cancer survival have not taken vulvar cancer into consideration or have pooled patients with vulvar and vaginal cancer. To bridge this knowledge gap, we report the trend in survival from vulvar cancer between 1990 and 2015. (2) Methods: Thirty-eight local cancer registries covering 49% of the national female population contributed the records of 6274 patients. Study endpoints included 1- and 2-year net survival (NS) calculated using the Pohar-Perme estimator and 5-year NS conditional on having survived two years (5|2-year CNS). The significance of survival trends was assessed with the Wald test on the coefficient of the period of diagnosis, entered as a continuous regressor in a Poisson regression model. (3) Results: The median patient age was stable at 76 years. One-year NS decreased from 83.9% in 1990–2001 to 81.9% in 2009–2015 and 2-year NS from 72.2% to 70.5%. Five|2-year CNS increased from 85.7% to 86.7%. These trends were not significant. In the age stratum 70–79 years, a weakly significant decrease in 2-year NS from 71.4% to 65.7% occurred. Multivariate analysis adjusting for age group at diagnosis and geographic area showed an excess risk of death at 5|2-years, of borderline significance, in 2003–2015 versus 1990–2002. (4) Conclusions: One- and 2-year NS and 5|2-year CNS showed no improvements. Current strategies for VSCC control need to be revised both in Italy and at the global level

High serum levels of transforming growth factor β1 are associated with increased cortical thickness in cingulate and right frontal areas in healthy subjects

ABSTRACT

Haplotype Affinities Resolve a Major Component of Goat (Capra hircus) MtDNA D-Loop Diversity and Reveal Specific Features of the Sardinian Stock

Goat mtDNA haplogroup A is a poorly resolved lineage absorbing most of the overall diversity and is found in locations as distant as Eastern Asia and Southern Africa. Its phylogenetic dissection would cast light on an important portion of the spread of goat breeding. The aims of this work were 1) to provide an operational definition of meaningful mtDNA units within haplogroup A, 2) to investigate the mechanisms underlying the maintenance of diversity by considering the modes of selection operated by breeders and 3) to identify the peculiarities of Sardinian mtDNA types. We sequenced the mtDNA D-loop in a large sample of animals (1,591) which represents a non-trivial quota of the entire goat population of Sardinia. We found that Sardinia mirrors a large quota of mtDNA diversity of Western Eurasia in the number of variable sites, their mutational pattern and allele frequency. By using Bayesian analysis, a distance-based tree and a network analysis, we recognized demographically coherent groups of sequences identified by particular subsets of the variable positions. The results showed that this assignment system could be reproduced in other studies, capturing the greatest part of haplotype diversity

A gene expression signature associated with survival in metastatic melanoma

BACKGROUND: Current clinical and histopathological criteria used to define the prognosis of melanoma patients are inadequate for accurate prediction of clinical outcome. We investigated whether genome screening by means of high-throughput gene microarray might provide clinically useful information on patient survival. METHODS: Forty-three tumor tissues from 38 patients with stage III and stage IV melanoma were profiled with a 17,500 element cDNA microarray. Expression data were analyzed using significance analysis of microarrays (SAM) to identify genes associated with patient survival, and supervised principal components (SPC) to determine survival prediction. RESULTS: SAM analysis revealed a set of 80 probes, corresponding to 70 genes, associated with survival, i.e. 45 probes characterizing longer and 35 shorter survival times, respectively. These transcripts were included in a survival prediction model designed using SPC and cross-validation which allowed identifying 30 predicting probes out of the 80 associated with survival. CONCLUSION: The longer-survival group of genes included those expressed in immune cells, both innate and acquired, confirming the interplay between immunological mechanisms and the natural history of melanoma. Genes linked to immune cells were totally lacking in the poor-survival group, which was instead associated with a number of genes related to highly proliferative and invasive tumor cells

Prevalence of human papillomavirus infection in women in Benin, West Africa

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cervical cancer ranks as the first most frequent cancer among women in Benin. The major cause of cervical cancer now recognized is persistent infection of Human Papillomavirus (HPV). In Benin there is a lack of screening programs for prevention of cervical cancer and little information exists regarding HPV genotype distribution.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Cervical cells from 725 women were examined for the presence of viral DNA by means of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) multiplex-based assay with the amplification of a fragment of L1 region and of E6/E7 region of the HPV genome, and of abnormal cytology by Papanicolaou method. The association between HPV status and Pap test reports was evaluated. Socio-demographic and reproductive characteristics were also related.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 18 different HPV types were identified, with a prevalence of 33.2% overall, and 52% and 26.7% among women with and without cervical lesions, respectively. Multiple HPV infections were observed in 40.2% of HPV-infected women. In the HPV-testing group, the odds ratio for the detection of abnormal cytology was 2.98 (95% CI, 1.83-4.84) for HPV positive in comparison to HPV negative women. High risk types were involved in 88% of infections, most notably HPV-59, HPV-35, HPV-16, HPV-18, HPV-58 and HPV-45. In multiple infections of women with cytological abnormalities HPV-45 predominated.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study provides the first estimates of the prevalence of HPV and type-specific distribution among women from Benin and demonstrates that the epidemiology of HPV infection in Benin is different from that of other world regions. Specific area vaccinations may be needed to prevent cervical cancer and the other HPV-related diseases.</p