Generazione Neet: questione complessa o etichetta vuota?

NEET – Not in Education, Employment or Training – designates young people between 15 and 29 years old not engaged in any work activities, according to ILO standards, or not involved in formal and non-formal education. The concern about “youth emergency” is showed by many documents of the European Community and within the Europe 2020 Strategy. The Italian situation has always showed higher percentages than the European average; in particular, in 2016 the EU-28 average is 14.2%, while in Italy the Neet are more than two million, which is the 24.3% of the reporting population. Previous studies suggested the implications of this issue with the condition of social inclusion/exclusion and many other social constructs, including: identity and agency, transition to adulthood and project skills, participation, trust and social relationships, the role of work and education/training. The general aim is to look into the Neet issue, through a psycho-social reading that can go beyond the typing surveys and can help to frame the issue in its becoming. The theoretical framework is the Social Representations Theory (Moscovici 1961/1976). More precisely, the emphasis is on the suggestions developed by Doise (1992), Marková (2003) and Camargo and Wachelke (2010). From a methodological point of view, the Grounded Theory approach was explored (Glaser e Strauss, 1967; Charmaz, 2006) and the research is composed by three integrated studies, each of which aims to deepen the object of study with different methods and tools (Flick, 2007; 2014). Specifically, the press was analysed by involving five Italian newspapers; a questionnaire was implemented and addressed to different groups of participants, according to their involvement with the Neet situation; the last study was developed through episodic semi-structured interviews with Neet. The results indicate an articulated social representation through the variables considered. In general, the issue consists of many references to work and aspects related to negative emotionality, partly balanced by some elements that refer to the possibility of having time for themselves and the opportunity to get involved. The long life learning concept is more less present

Subthreshold Stochastic Vestibular Stimulation Affects Balance-challenged Standing and Walking

Subthreshold stochastic vestibular stimulation (SVS) is thought to enhance vestibular sensitivity and improve balance. However, it is unclear how SVS affects standing and walking when balance is challenged, particularly when the eyes are open. It is also unclear how different methods to determine stimulation intensity influence the effects. We aimed to determine (1) whether SVS affects stability when balance is challenged during eyes-open standing and overground walking tasks, and (2) how the effects differ based on whether optimal stimulation amplitude is derived from sinusoidal or cutaneous threshold techniques. Thirteen healthy adults performed balance-unchallenged and balance-challenged standing and walking tasks with SVS (0–30 Hz zero-mean, white noise electrical stimulus) or sham stimulation. For the balance-challenged condition, participants had inflatable rubber hemispheres attached to the bottom of their shoes to reduce the control provided by moving the center of pressure under their base of support. In different blocks of trials, we set SVS intensity to either 50% of participants’ sinusoidal (motion) threshold or 80% of participants’ cutaneous threshold. SVS reduced medial-lateral trunk velocity root mean square in the balance-challenged (p < 0.05) but not in the balance-unchallenged condition during standing. Regardless of condition, SVS decreased step-width variability and marginally increased gait speed when walking with the eyes open (p < 0.05). SVS intensity had minimal effect on the standing and walking measures. Taken together, our results provide insight into the effectiveness of SVS at improving balance-challenged, eyes-open standing and walking performance in healthy adults

Sensitive Detection and Quantification of Anisakid Parasite Residues in Food Products

Anisakids are nematodes whose larval stages are often present in fish, molluscs, and crustaceans. Members of the family Anisakidae belonging to the genera Anisakis and Pseudoterranova are implicated in human infections caused by the consumption of raw or undercooked fish. Adequate cooking will kill anisakid larvae, however, killed or inactivated larvae can still cause sensitization and immunoglobulin E-dependent hypersensitivity in human. This work describes the development of DNA-based tests to detect and quantify the presence of Anisakis spp. and Pseudoterranova spp. larvae in fish and fish-derived products, including fish fillets, surimi, fish sticks, canned fish, and baby food. Primers and TaqMan MGB probes recognizing only Anisakis spp. and Pseudoterranova spp. were designed on the first internal transcribed spacer 1 regions of rDNA for a real-time polymerase chain reaction assay. A commercial probe for 18S rDNA was used to detect and quantify the total eukaryotic DNA of the samples. The specificity and sensitivity of the assays were tested using reference samples prepared from mixtures made of Anisakis larvae in different quantity of codfish, and subsequent dilutions. Studies were performed to assess the ability of the test to detect and quantify anisakids in various products. Results showed that this test is able to detect anisakid DNA contained in a proportion of 1:10(5) in 1 ng of total DNA. The high prevalence of anisakids reported in main fishery species was confirmed by frequently detecting anisakids DNA in fish muscle and fish-derived products. A partial correlation was found between the number of larvae present in the viscera and the level of contamination of fish fillets. In conclusion, this molecular test is useful to detect the presence of Anisakis spp. and Pseudoterranova spp. in fish and fish-derived products and to quantify the level of contamination along the food chain, with potential applications for fish farms, fish markets, and food producers

Effectiveness of a Mindful Compassion Care Program in reducing burnout and psychological distress amongst frontline hospital nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic: a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Recent studies have shown that nurses have been more affected by the COVID-19 pandemic than any other group of hospital workers in terms of anxiety, depression, and burnout. Several clinical studies had previously demonstrated the effectiveness of mindfulness and compassion interventions in reducing burnout and emotional distress amongst healthcare professionals. Methods and analysis: A parallel-group randomized controlled trial will assess the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of a mindfulness and compassion-focused programme on frontline nurses who had been working during the COVID-19 pandemic. Seventy-two participants will be recruited from Verona University Hospital Trust (Veneto Region, north-east Italy) and will be divided equally into an intervention group and a control group. Primary outcome will be assessed using the Emotional Exhaustion subscale of the Maslach Burnout Inventory General Survey (MBI-GS). Secondary outcomes will be measured by the Cynicism and Professional Efficacy subscales of the MBI-GS, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7), the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), the Impact of Stressful Events (IES-R), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), and the Forms of Self-Criticising/attacking and Self-Reassuring Scale (FSCRS). Discussion: The study aims to fill a gap in the literature and present a scientifically validated intervention for those healthcare professionals most exposed to the stressful conditions of working during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov; Identifier: NCT05308537

#exploreART: il labirinto di A. Pomodoro e i bambini. Un progetto di fruizione condivisa con percorsi sensoriali partecipati

The contribution presents a research project conducted by Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro to formulate, design and create, together with children and teachers, and to evaluate – with the help of the University – a different approach to the experience of contemporary art. This project has been implemented thanks to co-funding provided by Fondazione Cariplo. The initial hypothesis, after many years of experimentation on the part of Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro in the field of art education, and in the various temporary and permanent exhibitions organized by the foundation, was to explore a series of new possibilities that underline the value of participation, in which the soundscape can also become part of a meaningful experience

INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE AND EXTRAINTESTINAL MANIFESTATIONS

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, are chronic and recurrent inflammatory diseases. Although the typical symptoms are localized in the gastrointestinal tract, there are also extraintestinal manifestations (EIMs) associated with IBD, probably caused by immune reactions secondary to the pathology of origin. Anybody can be affected by EIMs, which can be dermatological, pulmonary, ocular, musculoskeletal, hepatobiliary and neurological, et al. This represents a therapeutic challenge for clinicians, who must first establish a diagnostic and then a multidisciplinary therapeutic path, in order to guarantee an optimal quality of life for the patient

Pattern of response of unresectable and metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma to programmed death-1 inhibitors: A review of the literature

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is the second most frequent nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC). The majority of in situ cSCC [cSCC (Tis)] can be cured surgically, while local advanced and metastatic ones require other treatments, but there are no therapies approved by U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Available treatments for these stages included radiotherapy, chemotherapy as cisplatin, but responses to these treatments are usually of short duration. Programmed death-1 (PD-1) inhibitors (pembrolizumab, nivolumab, and cemiplimab) are an innovative immunologic treatment that now has been shown to be useful for the treatment of advanced cSCC. Nowadays, data about the response rate with the use of PD-1 inhibitors in cSCC are still few and, especially, the duration of the response after the start of treatment is short. Moreover, the number of cases is too small to express the beneficial effects of these treatments, although most data reported in the literature show quite good response rates. This review focused on some of the studies and associated results through an interesting research on search engines of all the cases about these systemic drugs, analyzing effects and side effects, and the research has been conducted considering published cases since March 2016 to October 2019