Studio longitudinale sul benessere e le attitudini degli Studenti di Medicina e Chirurgia. Primi risultati della fase 1: Le caratteristiche degli studenti selezionati

We present the first results of a longitudinal study for the recognition and assessment of non-cognitive aspects of the candidates access to medicine course, and throughout the course. This study considered 8 CLMs equally distributed throughout the country and 980 students enrolled in the first year, in the academic year 2013-2014. Preliminary results obtained from the analysis of the questionnaire used in the research show that students expect a profession characterized by the aid for patients and socially useful, while they do not expect a low pay as well as a work activity risky for health. Students are motivated to the academic course mainly by the desire to care for others, while variously opportunistic aspects are much less relevant. Students show high capacity of self-regulation, a high level of empathy in its both aspects of propensity to engagement with others in their difficult moments, as well as of tendency to spontaneously take the perspective of others, while they are able to maintain a goal directed behavior even in the presence of suffering others. These students are basically satisfied, they show a confident and positive attitude towards life and a substantial psychological health. However, it is possible to identify a sub-group of students showing signals of psychological fragility who must be carefully monitored: their profiles will be analyzed in more detail, through in-depth interviews scheduled for the third/fourth year as part of faculties counselling services

Dictyostelium cytosolic fucosyltransferase synthesizes H type 1 trisaccharide in vitro

AbstractA fucosyltransferase activity has been detected using lacto-N-biose I as acceptor in the lower eukaryote Dictyostelium discoideum. This transferase requires divalent cations and is inhibited by N-ethylmaleimide and detergent treatment. Apparent calculated Km values for GDP-Fuc and lacto-N-biose I are 1.27 μM and 2.80 mM, respectively. The activity is quantitatively recovered in the supernatant after centrifugation at 100 000 × g for 1 h. The reaction product, as determined by gel permeation chromatography, sensitivity to fucosidases, and analysis of partially methylated derivatives, is Fucα1-2Galβ1-3GlcNAc (H type 1 trisaccharide)

[Admission test to the degree course in Medicine and Surgery and university career: the experience in the campuses of Piedmont Region (Northern Italy)]

OBJECTIVES: to consider the admission test to the degree course in Medicine and Surgery in the three campus of Piedmont Region (Northern Italy) in order to discuss the ability of this test to predict the academic outcome of the students. DESIGN: cohort study considering all the students enrolled in the first year of medicine during the academic year 2014-2015. Their academic career is monitored during the period January 2015-February 2016. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: a total of 781 students is considered and divided into two groups: regular (registered after passing the admission test; n. 605) and TAR (registered after court decision and having won the case in tribunal; n. 176). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: the study is based on three indicators of performance: A1. at least one of the required exams in the first year passed; A2. at least half of the required exams in the first year passed; A3. all the exams required in the first year passed. Statistical analyses are based on: positive predictive value and relative 95% confidence interval; odds ratio and relative 95% confidence intervals, adjusted by sex, age, high school type, and vote estimated by logistic regression models. RESULTS: the results highlight the good prediction of the admission test that remains significant even after adjustment for the confounding factors considered. CONCLUSIONS: the major limits are the short period of observation and the restricted number of campus considered. However, this analysis confirms the importance of the admission test. In fact, students with low scores in the test could show serious disadvantages in passing the exams (in the appointed time) in the first year

Say "no" to spinal cord injury: is nitric oxide an option for therapeutic strategies?

a literature review was made to investigate the role of nitric oxide (NO) in spinal cord injury, a pathological condition that leads to motor, sensory, and autonomic deficit. Besides, we were interested in potential therapeutic strategies interfering with NO mechanism of secondary damage