Erratum to: Hospitalizations for pertussis in Italy, 1999–2009: analysis of the hospital discharge database

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Mental health in Italy after two years of COVID-19 from the perspective of 1281 Italian physicians: looking back to plan forward

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has generated an unprecedented global crisis that is profoundly affecting mental health and mental health care. The aim of this study was to survey a relatively large group of Italian physicians about their perceived impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of the Italian population and about their suggestions on the best strategies to address the current and future challenges. Methods: One thousand two hundred eighty-one (1,281) physicians were surveyed between November 2021 and February 2022. Results: Eighty-one percent of respondents reported an increase in the number of people with mental illness presenting to their practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thirty-four percent reported a 26-50% increase in the number of people with mental illness in their community; approximately 33% reported a 1-25% increase; and 26.9% reported a 51-75% increase. The most commonly reported mental issues that increased because of COVID-19 were agitation, mood and anxiety disorders. Regarding the suggested strategies to address future challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, 34.6% of respondents recommended providing psychoeducation to the general population for early detection of mental illness and developing strategies to reduce the impact of COVID-19-related stress. In addition, 12.6% of respondents suggested improving telehealth services, while 12.3% suggested the need for increased funding for community-based care. When asked about physicians' opinion on the possibility of an increased prevalence of mental illness in the next 12 months, more than 30% of them predicted an increase in stress-related illnesses, while 25.2% were more concerned about a worsening of the ongoing clinical conditions of patients with previous psychiatric disorders. However, 21% of respondents believed that people's ability to cope with the pandemic would increase in the next 12 months. Conclusions: This study confirmed a strong and negative impact on the mental health of the past 2 years of COVID-19 pandemic in the Italian population. Providing psychoeducation to the general population and improving the availability of telemedicine services could reduce the impact of future challenges related to the pandemic

Vulnerabilities in Mental Health due to Covid-19 Pandemic: The Response of the Italian Physicians

COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the pre-existing vulnerabilities and inequalities in societies. In this paper we analyse the categories that have suffered more than others from the pandemic and the restrictions on social life in terms of mental health. We rely on the Serendipity project based on a survey administered between November 2021 and February 2022 to a sample of Italian physicians (n = 1281). The survey aimed to assess the perception of general practitioners, paediatricians, geriatricians, and mental health specialists (psychiatrists, neurologists, child neuropsychiatrists), about changes in the mental health of the population as an effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown. The strategies implemented by the doctors interviewed in terms of the intensity of the prevention, emergence, and treatment of mental health interventions, and their association with physicians' characteristics and their opinions on patient vulnerability have been illustrated by means of a multiple correspondence analysis. An overall result of the survey is the consensus of doctors on the worsening of mental health in general population, especially among their patients, due to the pandemic and on the onset of new discomforts. The most exposed individuals to the risk of onset or worsening of mental disorders include women, young people, and patients with psychiatric comorbidity. The paper also illustrates the interventions put in place by the physicians and deemed necessary from a public heath response perspective, that include providing psychoeducation to the general population, improving telehealth services, and increasing financial and human resources for community-based care

Treating depression in clinical practice: new insights on the multidisciplinary use of trazodone

Depression is estimated to be a leading contributor to the global mental health-related burden. The determinants of this huge prevalence lie in the fact that depressive symptoms may be comorbid in a wide variety of disorders, thus complicating and exacerbating their clinical framework. This makes the treatment of depressive symptoms difficult, since many pharmacological interactions should be considered by physicians planning therapy. Hence, depression still represents a challenge for both psychiatrists and other clinicians, in terms of its high rates of relapse and resistance despite well-established protocols. It is also complicated by the well-known latency in its complete response to current antidepressant treatments. In this context, the search for new strategies regarding antidepressant treatment is mandatory. Revising the use of “old” pharmacotherapies by considering their specific features may help to perfecting the treatment of depression, both in its standalone psychiatric manifestation and in the framework of other clinical conditions. Using a nominal group technique approach, the results of a consensus of expert physicians regarding the possible use of trazodone as a valuable strategy for addressing the “real world” unmet needs of depression treatment in different fields (psychiatry, primary care, neurology and geriatrics) is herein provided. This idea is based on the unique characteristics of this drug which delivers a more rapid antidepressant action as compared to other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. It also has pharmacodynamic malleability (i.e., the possibility of exerting different effects on depressive symptoms at different dosages) and pharmacokinetic tolerability (i.e., the possibility of being used as an add-on to other antidepressants with scarce interaction and achieving complimentary effects) when used in the milieu of other drugs in treating comorbid depressive symptoms. Moreover, the large number of formulations available permits finite dosage adjustments, and the use of trazodone for specific pathologies, such as dysphagia. Therefore, although additional studies exploring the real-world conditions of antidepressant treatment are warranted, experts agree on the idea that depressive disorder, in both its standalone and its comorbid manifestations, may surely take advantage of the particular characteristics of trazodone, thus attempting to reach the greatest effectiveness in different contexts

Reliability of forced internal rotation and active internal rotation to assess lateral instability of the biceps pulley

Purpose: the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between positive painful forced internal rotation (FIR) and lateral pulley instability in the presence of a pre-diagnosed posterosuperior cuff tear. The same investigation was conducted for painful active internal rotation (AIR). Methods: a multicenter prospective study was conducted in a series of patients scheduled to undergo arthroscopic posterosuperior cuff repair. Pain was assessed using a visual analog scale (VAS) and the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand questionnaire (DASH) was administered. The VAS score at rest, DASH score, and presence/absence of pain on FIR and AIR were recorded and their relationships with lesions of the lateral pulley, cuff tear patterns and shape of lesions were analyzed. Results: the study population consisted of 115 patients (mean age: 55.1 years) recruited from 12 centers. The dominant arm was affected in 72 cases (62.6%). The average anteroposterior extension of the lesion was 1.61 cm. The mean preoperative VAS and DASH scores were 6.1 and 41.8, respectively. FIR and AIR were positive in 94 (81.7%) and 85 (73.9%) cases, respectively. The lateral pulley was compromised in 50 cases (43.4%). Cuff tears were partial articular in 35 patients (30.4%), complete in 61 (53%), and partial bursal in 19 (16.5%). No statistical correlation between positive FIR or AIR and lateral pulley lesions was detected. Positive FIR and AIR were statistically associated with complete lesions. Negative FIR was associated with the presence of partial articular tears. Conclusions: painful FIR in the presence of a postero-superior cuff tear does not indicate lateral pulley instability. When a cuff tear is suspected, positive FIR and AIR are suggestive of full-thickness tear patterns while a negative FIR suggests a partial articular lesion. Level of evidence: level I, validating cohort study with good reference standards

Characterisation of a Wheat Breeders’ Array suitable for high throughput SNP genotyping of global accessions of hexaploid bread wheat (<i>Triticum aestivium</i>)

Targeted selection and inbreeding have resulted in a lack of genetic diversity in elite hexaploid bread wheat accessions. Reduced diversity can be a limiting factor in the breeding of high yielding varieties and crucially can mean reduced resilience in the face of changing climate and resource pressures. Recent technological advances have enabled the development of molecular markers for use in the assessment and utilization of genetic diversity in hexaploid wheat. Starting with a large collection of 819 571 previously characterized wheat markers, here we describe the identification of 35 143 single nucleotide polymorphism-based markers, which are highly suited to the genotyping of elite hexaploid wheat accessions. To assess their suitability, the markers have been validated using a commercial high-density Affymetrix Axiom® genotyping array (the Wheat Breeders' Array), in a high-throughput 384 microplate configuration, to characterize a diverse global collection of wheat accessions including landraces and elite lines derived from commercial breeding communities. We demonstrate that the Wheat Breeders' Array is also suitable for generating high-density genetic maps of previously uncharacterized populations and for characterizing novel genetic diversity produced by mutagenesis. To facilitate the use of the array by the wheat community, the markers, the associated sequence and the genotype information have been made available through the interactive web site 'CerealsDB'

Implementation of FAIR principles in the IPCC: the WGI AR6 Atlas repository

The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has adopted the FAIR Guiding Principles. We present the Atlas chapter of Working Group I (WGI) as a test case. We describe the application of the FAIR principles in the Atlas, the challenges faced during its implementation, and those that remain for the future. We introduce the open source repository resulting from this process, including coding (e.g., annotated Jupyter notebooks), data provenance, and some aggregated datasets used in some figures in the Atlas chapter and its interactive companion (the Interactive Atlas), open to scrutiny by the scientific community and the general public. We describe the informal pilot review conducted on this repository to gather recommendations that led to significant improvements. Finally, a working example illustrates the re-use of the repository resources to produce customized regional information, extending the Interactive Atlas products and running the code interactively in a web browser using Jupyter notebooks.Peer reviewe

Design and validation of a 90K SNP genotyping assay for the water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis)

Background: The availability of the bovine genome sequence and SNP panels has improved various genomic analyses, from exploring genetic diversity to aiding genetic selection. However, few of the SNP on the bovine chips are polymorphic in buffalo, therefore a panel of single nucleotide DNA markers exclusive for buffalo was necessary for molecular genetic analyses and to develop genomic selection approaches for water buffalo. The creation of a 90K SNP panel for river buffalo and testing in a genome wide association study for milk production is described here. Methods: The genomes of 73 buffaloes of 4 different breeds were sequenced and aligned against the bovine genome, which facilitated the identification of 22 million of sequence variants among the buffalo genomes. Based on frequencies of variants within and among buffalo breeds, and their distribution across the genome, inferred from the bovine genome sequence, 90,000 putative single nucleotide polymorphisms were selected to create an Axiom® Buffalo Genotyping Array 90K. Results: This 90K "SNP-Chip" was tested in several river buffalo populations and found to have ∼70% high quality and polymorphic SNPs. Of the 90K SNPs about 24K were also found to be polymorphic in swamp buffalo. The SNP chip was used to investigate the structure of buffalo populations, and could distinguish buffalo from different farms. A Genome Wide Association Study identified genomic regions on 5 chromosomes putatively involved in milk production. Conclusion: The 90K buffalo SNP chip described here is suitable for the analysis of the genomes of river buffalo breeds, and could be used for genetic diversity studies and potentially as a starting point for genome-assisted selection programmes. This SNP Chip could also be used to analyse swamp buffalo, but many loci are not informative and creation of a revised SNP set specific for swamp buffalo would be advised.Daniela Iamartino, Ezequiel L. Nicolazzi, Curtis P. Van Tassell, James M. Reecy, Eric R. Fritz-Waters, James E. Koltes, Stefano Biffani, Tad S. Sonstegard, Steven G. Schroeder, Paolo Ajmone-Marsan, Riccardo Negrini, Rolando Pasquariello, Paola Ramelli, Angelo Coletta, José F. Garcia, Ahmad Ali, Luigi Ramunno, Gianfranco Cosenza, Denise A.A. de Oliveira, Marcela G. Drummond, Eduardo Bastianetto, Alessandro Davassi, Ali Pirani, Fiona Brew, John L. William