Adherence to cancer screenings: is the telephone survey a good method of investigation?

*INTRODUCTION* - In order to define subjective variables, the methodology on the assessment of the women participation to screening programs to prevent cervical cancer is presented. *MATERIALS AND METHODS* - The study was conducted using a structured questionnaire administered by telephone to a sample of women invited to screening, regardless of their real participation to the Pap test. The phone calls were made within 2 days prior to the Pap test session. The questionnaire contained 12 closed questions. *RESULTS* - We contacted a total of 1206 women: a total of 1100 women (93.70%) received the invitation letter and answered to the questionnaire. *CONCLUSIONS* - The chosen procedure obtained a high percentage of women who agreed to be interviewed

Varicella notification in immigrants: a brief report from Ferrara, Italy

Background and Aim of the work - We conducted a survey of varicella cases' notifications in the immigrant population in the province of Ferrara, Italy. Materials and Methods – We collected notifications of infectious disease between 2002 and 2006. Results and discussion - At the end of 2006, the 4.5% (14252 subjects) of total population of the province of Ferrara and its province was represented of immigrants from foreign countries. In this context, between 2002 and 2006, a total of 1969 cases of varicella, including 3.1% related to migrants, were reported. Among immigrants, there were 36 cases in males, and 26 in females. The cases were notified in the 64.5% by the hospital emergency service, in the 16.1% by the paediatrician and in 19.4% by the general practitioner. The incidence appears similar in both populations in childhood: this fact could means an integration in the local epidemiology for varicella of the immigrant school-children

An overview of the first 50 years of transglutaminase research

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Suspension of mandatory vaccination and public health preserving: Rovigo Local Health Unit experience after appliance of Veneto regional law 7/2007

The burden of infectious diseases preventable by vaccination decreased considerably over last decades in all countries pro- vided with effective immunization schedules. Implementation of these programs with new vaccines has started discussion on dual- ity between mandatory and recommended vaccinations. Regional autonomy has allowed the Veneto Region, with introduction of Law 7/2007, to experience suspension of all mandatory childhood vaccinations, replaced by an active and free offer of all vaccines recognized as safe and effective. Coverage?s trends and accept- ance of invitation are carefully monitored to avoid loss of com- pliance and reduction of immunized children. The evaluation, performed on population of Rovigo ULSS18 for 2002-2008 birth cohorts (2008 is the first concerned by the change), revealed no fall for previously mandatory vaccinations, but rather a slight increase. Percentage of non-vaccinated children was negligible. The leading cause of non-vaccination to polio was inability to deliver the letter of invitation due to wrong address. An informed dissent was expressed only by a minority (0.9% in 2008 birth cohort). Compliance to immunization offer was elevated both for previ- ously compulsory and recommended vaccinations. Experience of Rovigo ULSS 18 showed that, in a context of already high levels of coverage for recommended vaccinations with optimal organization of immunization services, coverage rates for ex- mandatory vaccines remain unchanged. Further research and reports are required to carefully assess the effect on coverage rates in next birth cohorts, but available data are encourag- ing. Similar legislative measures can be successfully adopted by other Regions with starting conditions comparable to Veneto Region

Knowledge of preventive measures against occupational risks and spread of healthcare-associated infections among nursing students. An epidemiological prevalence study from Ferrara, Italy

Introduction. Exposure to biological agents is the most common occupational risk for nursing staff. This study verified changes in attitudes and knowledge occurred in the nursing students after the first year of degree. Methods. The survey was conducted in academic year 2006/07 among the students of the Professional Nursing Course at University of Ferrara (Italy) using a structured questionnaire. Students were 85 at the beginning and 80 at the end of the courses. Results. The rate of subjects using gloves for intramuscular injections and fingertip puncture was unsatisfactory. A high percentage of students performed recap of needles. The use of gloves in case of washing of surgical instruments was high. The compliance in the use of gloves in handling test tubes remained low. Only 2/3 of the students washes their hands coming in ward. Incorrect attitudes have been observed in changing or wearing gloves. The students considered vaccination against hepatitis-B necessary, vaccination against flu unnecessary. A high percentage of students had not performed any prophylaxis for tuberculosis. Discussion. Students intend the use of gloves mainly to perform self-protection. The concept of self-protection is contradicted by the large percentage of students that recap used needles. A significant percentage of students have not yet gained the criti- cal thinking necessary to consider the importance of universal precautions as a means not only of self-protection but also of prevention of hospital infections. Conclusions. Students consider the basic standard measures for the control of infectious diseases only like self-protection and not to prevent hospital infections

Multi-views Embedding for Cattle Re-identification

People re-identification task has seen enormous improvements in the latest years, mainly due to the development of better image features extraction from deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and the availability of large datasets. However, little research has been conducted on animal identification and re-identification, even if this knowledge may be useful in a rich variety of different scenarios. Here, we tackle cattle re-identification exploiting deep CNN and show how this task is poorly related to the human one, presenting unique challenges that make it far from being solved. We present various baselines, both based on deep architectures or on standard machine learning algorithms, and compared them with our solution. Finally, a rich ablation study has been conducted to further investigate the unique peculiarities of this task

What's new and what's next for biological and targeted synthetic treatments in psoriatic arthritis?

introductionpsoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a chronic arthritis typically associated with cutaneous psoriasis (PsO). Its pathogenesis is connected to an innate and acquired immune response, as well as genetic risk alleles. the extent of immunopathogenic mechanisms and the heterogenicity of clinical manifestation make the identification of patient-targeted therapies a critical issue, and the treatment decision challenging in patients' management.areas coveredThis review includes a brief overview of biological and small-molecule therapies, focusing on evidence from clinical trials and real-world data that support their use in PsA. We summarize novel and future possible therapeutic strategies, the importance that comorbidities have on selection of therapy and discuss the adverse event of each drug. relevant papers for up to 1 august 2022 (trials, real-life studies, and reviews) regarding biologics and/or small molecules were summarized.Expert opinionIn recent years, the treatment of PsA has been revolutionized by new targeted therapies, which offer the opportunity to perform a tailored-tail management, considering risk factors, comorbidities, and the different PsA phenotypes. growing experience with these new agents allows novel treatment approaches that may improve clinical outcomes for PsA patients, in terms of remission/low disease activity and quality of life

RANGE OF MOTION AND STRETCH TOLERANCE AFTER ECCENTRIC STRENGTH TRAINING

The purpose of this study was to examine whether eccentric strength training alone and eccentric strength training combined with flexibility training of hamstring muscles can alter the maximum range of motion (ROM) and the stretch tolerance (ST) in the human hamstring muscles. Thirteen male (physical education students) performed strength eccentric training (Ecc) on one leg and eccentric and flexibility training (Ecc_F) on their other leg for 6 weeks; nine other subjects, not involved in any of these exercise performed served as a control group (CON). Strength and flexibility tests were administered before and after the training period. After 6 weeks of training, a significant difference between pretest and posttest was found for the one maximum repetition (1- RM) test on the Ecc and Ecc_F (

THE CHRONIC EFFECT OF STRENGTH AND FLEXIBILITY TRAINING ON STIFFNESS AND RANGE OF MOTION

Twelve male subjects were in the training group (T) who performed concentric strength training (CON) on one side and concentric plus flexibility training (CON_F) on the other side; other 10 subjects served as a control (C). A strength and stretch tests were administered before and after the training period. After 6 weeks of training a significant difference between pre and posttest was found for the 1 repetition maximum (1RM) test on T group. The ROM increased significantly only in CONC_F group. No differences between groups or time existed was found for stiffness. Concentric training was able to enhance strength without any alterations in the stiffness of muscle-tendon unit (MTU). The concentric training combined with flexibility training was able to increase strength and ROM without any augmentation in stiffness