An analysis of Italian university students' performance through segmented regression models: gender differences in STEM courses

This paper investigates gender differences in university performances in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) courses in Italy, proposing a novel application through the segmented regression models. The analysis concerns freshmen students enrolled at a 3-year STEM degree in Italian universities in the last decade, with a focus on the relationship between the number of university credits earned during the first year (a good predictor of the regularity of the career) and the probability of getting the bachelor degree within 4 years. Data is provided by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MIUR). Our analysis confirms that first-year performance is strongly correlated to obtaining a degree within 4 years. Furthermore, our findings show that gender differences vary among STEM courses, in accordance with the care-oriented and technical-oriented dichotomy. Males outperform females in mathematics, physics, chemistry and computer science, while females are slightly better than males in biology. In engineering, female performance seems to follow the male stream. Finally, accounting for other important covariates regarding students, we point out the importance of high school background and students' demographic characteristics

Student mobility in higher education: Sicilian outflow network and chain migrations

The Italian public universities are subsidised within a competitive framework that awards excellence, efficiency, and the capacity of universities to attract students from Italian regions other than its own. However, repeated cuts to public spending has increased the well-known Italian North-South divide. The most important student mobility (SM) flow is from the Southern to the Central-Northern regions--a phenomenon that has been magnified by an increasing number of outgoing students from Sicily over the last decade. In this paper, we rely upon micro-data of university enrolment and students' personal records for three cohorts of freshmen, in order to investigate preferential patterns of SM from Sicily toward universities in other regions. Indeed, our main goal is to eventually reveal the existence of chain migrations, through which students from a particular geographical area move towards a particular destination. We consider 38 clusters aggregating the 390 Sicilian municipalities, based on geographical proximity and socio-economic criteria. The data from each cohort is represented as a tripartite network with three sets of nodes, namely, clusters of Sicilian municipalities, students, and universities. The tripartite network is projected in a bipartite weighted network of clusters and universities, which is, then, filtered, in order to obtain a statistically validated bipartite network (SBVN). The SBVNs of the three cohorts suggest the existence and evolution of chain migration patterns over time, which are also gender specific

Characteristics of somatic tinnitus patients with and without hyperacusis

Objective: Determine if somatic tinnitus patients with hyperacusis have different characteristics from those without hyperacusis. Patients and methods: 172 somatic tinnitus patients with (n = 82) and without (n = 90) hyperacusis referred to the Tinnitus Unit of Sapienza University of Rome between June 2012 and June 2016 were compared for demographic characteristics, tinnitus features, self-administered questionnaire scores, nature of somatic modulation and history. Results: Compared to those without hyperacusis, patients with somatic tinnitus and hyperacusis: (a) were older (43.38 vs 39.12 years, p = 0.05), (b) were more likely to have bilateral tinnitus (67.08% vs 55.56%, p = 0.04), (c) had a higher prevalence of somatic modulation of tinnitus (53.65% vs 36.66%, p = 0.02) and (d) scored significantly worse on tinnitus annoyance (39.34 vs 22.81, p<0.001) and subjective hearing level (8.04 vs 1.83, p<0.001). Conclusion: Our study shows significantly higher tinnitus modulation and worse self-rating of tinnitus and hearing ability in somatic tinnitus patients with hyperacusis versus somatic tinnitus patients without hyperacusis. These differences could prove useful in developing a better understanding of the pathophysiology and establishing a course of treatment for these two groups of patients

A meta-analysis of survival rates of untreated patients in randomized clinical trials of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Knowing the spontaneous outcome of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is important for designing randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of new therapeutic approaches; however, survival of patients in the absence of treatment is highly variable, and prognostic factors influencing outcomes are incompletely defined. The aims of this meta-analysis were to estimate the 1-year and 2-year survival rates of untreated HCC patients enrolled in RCTs of palliative treatments, and to identify prognostic factors. RCTs evaluating therapies for HCC with placebo or no-treatment arms were identified on MEDLINE through April 2009. Data were combined in a random effect model. Primary outcomes were 1-year and 2-year survival. Thirty studies met the inclusion criteria. The pooled estimates of the survival rates were 17.5% at 1 year (95% confidence interval [95%CI], 11%-27%; range, 0%-75%) and 7.3% at 2 years (95%CI, 3.9%-13%; range, 0%-50%). Heterogeneity among studies was highly significant (P < 0.0001) both for 1-year and 2-year survival, and persisted when RCTs were stratified according to all patient and study features. Through meta-regression, impaired performance status, Child-Pugh B-C class, and presence of portal vein thrombosis were all independently associated with shorter survival. Ascites was strongly linked to a worse outcome in intermediate/advanced Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stages. Conclusion: This meta-analysis confirms the heterogeneity of behavior of untreated HCC and provides a sound basis for stratifying patients with HCC according to expected survival in future trials of new anti-cancer agents

Quali atenei scelgono i diplomati del Mezzogiorno d’Italia?

La geografia della mobilità degli studenti meridionali nel passaggio dalle superiori all’università è qui analizzata nel periodo che va dal 2011/12 al 2016/17 (anni scolastici o accademici). I dati, analizzati da Massimo Attanasio, Marco Enea e Andrea Priulla mostrano una fuga allarmante, e persino crescente nel tempo, dal Mezzogiorno verso gli atenei del Centro- Nord

lanreotide 60 mg a new long acting formulation effectiveness in the chronic treatment of acromegaly

Lanreotide (LAN) 60 mg (LAN60), a new long-acting formulation of LAN alleged to suppress GH/IGF-I hypersecretion for 28 d in acromegalic patients, was administered in a prospective open multicenter study to 92 patients with active acromegaly (61 women and 31 men, aged 20–79 yr). LAN60 was given as adjuvant treatment (AT) in 62 patients; the other 30 patients [primary treatment (PT)] were de novo (n = 20) or previously treated only by pharmacotherapy (n = 10). After wash-out from previous treatments, LAN60 was started im every 28 d for 3 injections; the dose was then individually tailored, aiming at lowering GH to less than 2.5 μg/liter and IGF-I to the normal range. After a median follow-up of 24 months (range, 6–48 months), IGF-I normalized in 65% of patients, decreasing from 199 ± 8% (expressed as a percentage of the upper limit of normal range; mean ± se) to 87 ± 4% (P < 0.0001). GH fell to less than 2.5 μg/liter in 63% of patients and to less than 1 μg/liter in 25%, decreasing from 20 ± 3 to 3 ± 0.4 μ..

Nonsense-mediated decay mechanism is a possible modifying factor of clinical outcome in nonsense cd39 beta thalassemia genotype

Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) is a surveillance system to prevent the synthesis of non-functional proteins. In β-thalassemia, NMD may have a role in clinical outcome. An example of premature translation stop codons appearing for the first time is the β-globin cd39 mutation; when homozygous, this results in a severe phenotype. The aim of this study was to determine whether the homozygous nonsense cd39 may have a milder phenotype in comparison with IVS1,nt110/cd39 genotype. Genotypes have been identified from a cohort of 568 patients affected by β-thalassemia. These genotypes were compared with those found in 577 affected fetuses detected among 2292 prenatal diagnoses. The nine most common genotypes, each with an incidence rate of 1.5% or over, and together accounting for 80% of genotype frequencies, underwent statistical analysis. Genotype prevalence was calculated within the overall group. Results are expressed as proportions with 95% confidence intervals; P≤0.05 was considered statistically significant. A binomial distribution was assumed for each group; z-tests were used to compare genotype frequencies observed in the patient group with frequencies in the affected fetus group. In the absence of selecting factors, prevalence of these two genotypes was compared between a cohort of 568 β-thalassemia patients (PTS) and 577 affected fetuses (FOET) detected during the same period. IVS1,nt110/cd39 was significantly more prevalent in FOET than PTS (P<0.0001), while there was no significant difference in prevalence of cd39/cd39 in FOET compared with PTS (P=0.524). These results suggest a cd39 genotype NMD mechanism may be associated with improved clinical outcomes in thalassemia major

MRONJ in breast cancer patients under bone modifying agents for cancer treatment-induced bone loss (CTIBL): a multi-hospital-based case series

BackgroundCancer treatment-induced bone loss (CTIBL) is the most common adverse event experienced by patients affected by breast cancer (BC) patients, without bone metastases. Bone modifying agents (BMAs) therapy is prescribed for the prevention of CTIBL, but it exposes patients to the risk of MRONJ.MethodsThis multicentre hospital-based retrospective study included consecutive non-metastatic BC patients affected by MRONJ related to exposure to low-dose BMAs for CTIBL prevention. Patients' data were retrospectively collected from the clinical charts of seven recruiting Italian centres.ResultsMRONJ lesions were found in fifteen females (mean age 67.5 years), mainly in the mandible (73.3%). The mean duration of BMAs therapy at MRONJ presentation was 34.9 months. The more frequent BMAs was denosumab (53.3%). Ten patients (66.7%) showed the following local risk factors associated to MRONJ development: periodontal disease (PD) in three cases (20%) and the remaining six (40%) have undergone PD-related tooth extractions. One patient presented an implant presence-triggered MRONJ (6.7%). In five patients (33.3%) no local risk factors were observed.ConclusionsThis is the first case series that investigated BC patients under BMAs for CTIBL prevention suffering from MRONJ. These patients seem to have similar probabilities of developing MRONJ as osteo-metabolic ones. Breast cancer patients under BMAs for CTIBL prevention need a regular prevention program for MRONJ, since they may develop bone metastases and be treated with higher doses of BMAs, potentially leading to a high-risk of MRONJ

Uromodulin is expressed in renal primary cilia and UMOD mutations result in decreased ciliary uromodulin expression

Uromodulin (UMOD) mutations are responsible for three autosomal dominant tubulo-interstitial nephropathies including medullary cystic kidney disease type 2 (MCKD2), familial juvenile hyperuricemic nephropathy and glomerulocystic kidney disease. Symptoms include renal salt wasting, hyperuricemia, gout, hypertension and end-stage renal disease. MCKD is part of the ‘nephronophthisis-MCKD complex', a group of cystic kidney diseases. Both disorders have an indistinguishable histology and renal cysts are observed in either. For most genes mutated in cystic kidney disease, their proteins are expressed in the primary cilia/basal body complex. We identified seven novel UMOD mutations and were interested if UMOD protein was expressed in the primary renal cilia of human renal biopsies and if mutant UMOD would show a different expression pattern compared with that seen in control individuals. We demonstrate that UMOD is expressed in the primary cilia of renal tubules, using immunofluorescent studies in human kidney biopsy samples. The number of UMOD-positive primary cilia in UMOD patients is significantly decreased when compared with control samples. Additional immunofluorescence studies confirm ciliary expression of UMOD in cell culture. Ciliary expression of UMOD is also confirmed by electron microscopy. UMOD localization at the mitotic spindle poles and colocalization with other ciliary proteins such as nephrocystin-1 and kinesin family member 3A is demonstrated. Our data add UMOD to the group of proteins expressed in primary cilia, where mutations of the gene lead to cystic kidney diseas