Gender Differences in Anxiety and Depression before and after Alcohol Detoxification: Anxiety and Depression as Gender-Related Predictors of Relapse

The aim of this prospective study was to estimate gender differences in anxiety, depression, and alcohol use severity among patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD) before and after detoxification program and within 12 months after discharge

Age of Onset of Mood Disorders and Complexity of Personality Traits

Objective. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the link between the age of onset of mood disorders and the complexity of the personality traits. Methods. 209 patients with major depressive or manic/hypomanic episodes were assessed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Axis I diagnoses and the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III). Results. 17.2% of the patients had no elevated MCMI-III scores, 45.9% had one peak, and 36.9% had a complex personality disorder with two or more elevated scores. Mood disorders onset of 29 years or less was the variable most related to the complexity of personality disorders as indicated from a recursive partitioning analysis. Conclusions. The relationship between mood disorders and personality traits differ in reference to age of onset of the mood disorder. In younger patients, maladaptive personality traits can evolve both in a mood disorder onset and in a complex personality disorder, while the later development of a severe mood disorder can increase the personality symptomatology. Our results suggest a threshold of mood disorder onset higher compared to previous studies. Maladaptive personality traits should be assessed not only during adolescence but also in young adults to identify and treat potential severe mood disorders

Denosumab in patients with aneurysmal bone systs: A case series with preliminary results

Abstract PURPOSE:: Aneurysmal bone cyst (ABC) is a rare skeletal tumor usually treated with surgery/embolization. We hypothesized that owing to similarities with giant cell tumor of bone (GCTB), denosumab was active also in ABC. METHODS:: In this observational study, a retrospective analysis of ABC patients treated with denosumab was performed. Patients underwent radiologic disease assessment every 3 months. Symptoms and adverse events were noted. RESULTS:: Nine patients were identified (6 male, 3 female), with a median age of 17 years (range 14-42 years). Primary sites were 6 spine-pelvis, 1 ulna, 1 tibia, and 1 humerus. Patients were followed for a median time of 23 months (range 3-55 months). Patients received a median of 8 denosumab administrations (range 3-61). All symptomatic patients had pain relief and 1 had paresthesia improvement. Signs of denosumab activity were observed after 3 to 6 months of administration: bone formation by computed tomography scan was demonstrated in all patients and magnetic resonance imaging gadolinium contrast media decrease was observed in 7/9 patients. Adverse events were negligible. At last follow-up, all patients were progression-free: 5 still on denosumab treatment, 2 off denosumab were disease-free 11 and 17 months after surgery, and the last 2 patients reported no progression 12 and 24 months after denosumab interruption and no surgery. CONCLUSIONS:: Denosumab has substantial activity in ABCs, with favorable toxicity profile. We strongly support the use of surgery and/or embolization for the treatment of ABC, but denosumab could have a role as a therapeutic option in patients with uncontrollable, locally destructive, or recurrent disease

Bone sarcoma patient-derived xenografts are faithful and stable preclinical models for molecular and therapeutic investigations

Standard therapy of osteosarcoma (OS) and Ewing sarcoma (EW) rests on cytotoxic regimes, which are largely unsuccessful in advanced patients. Preclinical models are needed to break this impasse. A panel of patient-derived xenografts (PDX) was established by implantation of fresh, surgically resected osteosarcoma (OS) and Ewing sarcoma (EW) in NSG mice. Engraftment was obtained in 22 of 61 OS (36%) and 7 of 29 EW (24%). The success rate in establishing primary cell cultures from OS was lower than the percentage of PDX engraftment in mice, whereas the reverse was observed for EW; the implementation of both in vivo and in vitro seeding increased the proportion of patients yielding at least one workable model. The establishment of in vitro cultures from PDX was highly efficient in both tumor types, reaching 100% for EW. Morphological and immunohistochemical (SATB2, P-glycoprotein 1, CD99, caveolin 1) studies and gene expression profiling showed a remarkable similarity between patient's tumor and PDX, which was maintained over several passages in mice, whereas cell cultures displayed a lower correlation with human samples. Genes differentially expressed between OS original tumor and PDX mostly belonged to leuykocyte-specific pathways, as human infiltrate is gradually replaced by murine leukocytes during growth in mice. In EW, which contained scant infiltrates, no gene was differentially expressed between the original tumor and the PDX. A novel therapeutic combination of anti-CD99 diabody C7 and irinotecan was tested against two EW PDX; both drugs inhibited PDX growth, the addition of anti-CD99 was beneficial when chemotherapy alone was less effective. The panel of OS and EW PDX faithfully mirrored morphologic and genetic features of bone sarcomas, representing reliable models to test therapeutic approaches

Studio osservazionale sui meccanismi modulatori lessicali della forza illocutoria in interpretazione simultanea IT-EN nel Parlamento Europeo

L’obiettivo principale del presente studio osservazionale consiste nell’offrire una prospettiva su alcuni fenomeni linguistici e nell’analizzare le strategie adottate dalle/dagli interpreti innanzi ad esse. I fenomeni linguistici, in italiano, oggetto della nostra analisi sono i seguenti: metacommenti, verbi modalizzatori, avverbi, forme impersonali, aggettivi, il “noi” come pronome personale con funzione inclusiva, soggetto del verbo coniugato alla prima persona plurale e gli aggettivi possessivi che da esso derivano (“nostro”, “nostra”, “nostri”, “nostre”). Questi fenomeni sono da noi analizzati in veste di modulatori della forza illocutoria e, pertanto, comportano una sua mitigazione oppure un rafforzamento. Il Parlamento Europeo è un contesto in cui il dibattito politico si svolge sotto l’osservazione di norme che regolano la modalità degli scambi comunicativi, ma queste non escludono la possibilità che Membri del Parlamento Europeo si servano di modulatori della forza illocutoria che permettano loro di essere più persuasivi o persino giungere ad essere offensivi nei confronti di altri soggetti. In questo studio osservazionale, i fenomeni sopra menzionati sono analizzati nella combinazione linguistica dall’italiano verso l’inglese. Questa combinazione è stata scelta in quanto è la più frequente – nelle sessioni del Parlamento Europeo – con italiano come lingua di partenza dell’interpretazione. Il materiale oggetto dell’analisi è composto da discorsi che sono stati trascritti utilizzando alcune convenzioni del metodo di trascrizione Jefferson, applicato tanto nella versione originale del discorso, in italiano, pronunciata dal Membro del Parlamento Europeo, così come nella versione dell’interprete, in inglese. La dimensioni del corpus è di 121 minuti di discorso trascritto, in italiano e in inglese, per un totale di 242 minuti

Some identi\ufb01cation techniques in computer vision

In this paper we describe, without a pretense of completeness, some modeling and identification techniques which have been proposed recently for applications to computer vision. The emphasis is on methods which, although sometimes still in development, attempt to address specific issues of the particular application area