Beyond neutrality: professionals’ responses to clients’ indirect complaints in a Therapeutic Community for people with a diagnosis of mental illness

Previous research has evidenced that in different institutional settings professionals are cautious when responding to clients’ indirect complaints and tend to avoid siding either with the clients/ complainants or the complained-of absent parties. In this article we use the method of Conversation Analysis to explore professional responses to clients’ indirect complaints in the context of a Therapeutic Community (TC) for people with diagnoses of mental illness in Italy. Although the TC staff members sometimes display a neutral orientation toward the clients’ complaints, as is the case in other institutional settings, in some instances they take a stance toward the clients’ complaints, either by distancing themselves or by overtly disaffiliating from them. We argue that these practices reflect the particular challenges of an institutional setting in which professionals engage with clients on a daily basis, have an institutional mandate of watching over them and are responsible for their safety. According to this interpretation, staff members’ non-neutrality toward clients’ complaints can be seen as a way of defending against the possibility, raised by the clients’ reports, that the staff members might be involved, albeit indirectly, in courses of action that have harmed or might harm the clients

Temperament and Character Effects on Late Adolescents' Well-Being and Emotional-Behavioural Difficulties

Background. Research on adults points to personality as a crucial determinant of well- being. The present study investigates the question of personality's relation to well-being and psychosocial adjustment in adolescence. Methods. We assessed the role of temperament and character (Temperament and Character Inventory, TCI-125), on psychological well-being (PWB; Psychological Well- Being scales), subjective well-being (SWB; Positive and Negative Affect, PA and NA, respectively), and psychosocial adjustment (emotional-behavioural problems measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for Adolescents, SDQ-A), in 72 Italian late adolescents (aged 17.5 0.75). Multiple regressions were conducted to predict PWB, SWB, and SDQ-A scores using TCI-125 scales as predictors. Results. Character maturity, and in particular Self-Directedness, had a widespread protective effect on well-being and psychosocial adjustment, while different strengths and emotional-behavioural difficulties were associated to specific temperamental and character traits. For example, Harm-Avoidance and Novelty-Seeking positively predicted internalized and externalized problems, respectively. Discussion. The present results suggest the usefulness of continuing to evaluate temperament and, in particular, character dimensions in investigations focused on adolescents' well-being and psychosocial functioning, especially in the contexts of potential interventions aimed at enhancing development of adolescents' character dimensions at the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and transpersonal levels

A low-noise transimpedance amplifier for BLM-based ion channel recording

High-throughput screening (HTS) using ion channel recording is a powerful drug discovery technique in pharmacology. Ion channel recording with planar bilayer lipid membranes (BLM) is scalable and has very high sensitivity. A HTS system based on BLM ion channel recording faces three main challenges: (i) design of scalable microfluidic devices; (ii) design of compact ultra-low-noise transimpedance amplifiers able to detect currents in the pA range with bandwidth >10 kHz; (iii) design of compact, robust and scalable systems that integrate these two elements. This paper presents a low-noise transimpedance amplifier with integrated A/D conversion realized in CMOS 0.35 µm technology. The CMOS amplifier acquires currents in the range ±200 pA and ±20 nA, with 100 kHz bandwidth while dissipating 41 mW. An integrated digital offset compensation loop balances any voltage offsets from Ag/AgCl electrodes. The measured open-input input-referred noise current is as low as 4 fA/Root Hz at ±200 pA range. The current amplifier is embedded in an integrated platform, together with a microfluidic device, for current recording from ion channels. Gramicidin-A, alpha-haemolysin and KcsA potassium channels have been used to prove both the platform and the current-to-digital converter

Clues of Post-seismic Relaxation for the 1915 Fucino Earthquake (Central Italy) from Modeling of Leveling Data

The 1915 Fucino earthquake (Ms=6.9) was one of the largest and most destructive events in Italy during the last century. The epicentral area is centered in the Abruzzi region (Central Italy), where a long historical record of large earthquakes is available. Seismotectonic studies on this region, based on instrumental seismicity (focal mechanism solutions of major events and stress analysis of background seismicity), borehole break-out studies and several geological and paleoseismological investigations, suggest NE-SW oriented active extension. The 1915 earthquake fault produced detectable surface ruptures for about 20 km along NW-SE striking SW-dipping structures. Coseismic geodetic data recorded in the epicentral area have been inverted in the past (Amoruso et al. 1998 and references therein), indicating a source fault dipping at moderate angle toward SW and a normal focal mechanism, with a non-negligible left-lateral component. Three high precision leveling lines located in a wide sector north and east of the Fucino plain were measured in 1950 and 1997-2000 by the IGM (Istituto Geografico Militare). Two consecutive lines run in a NW-SE direction along the chain, and form a "T-shape" net together with a third line SW-NE striking, towards the Adriatic sea. The total length is about 360 km with a mean benchmark density higher than 0.5 bm/km. The relative elevation changes recorded during this time interval show maximum values between 7 and 12 cm with a signal wavelength of 40-70 km. The observed elevation changes stand significantly above the calculated total error of 1.13 mm sqrt(L) km. A sharp gradient has been observed east of the earthquake epicenter, where we observe peculiar elevation changes along a 40 km long section of the leveling line. The observed elevation changes in Fucino earthquake area seem to comprise both regional tectonic deformation and post-seismic relaxation. The former and the latter effects are expected to dominate along sections of the leveling lines which are respectively about perpendicular and parallel to the Apennines. Since we compare measurements performed in 1950 and 1997-2000, relaxation effects refer to a late stage of the process. We have used Pollitz (1997) code for computing gravitational-viscoelastic postseismic relaxation on a layered spherical Earth. Different Earth models, characterized by different thicknesses and viscosities of crustal layers and of the upper mantle, have been considered. Even if S/N ratio of expected post-seismic effects is not high, comparison between predictions and observations allows to constrain regional crustal structure. Best-fit seismic moment is in good agreement with Amoruso et al. (1998) and residuals are fully consistent with expected regional tectonic deformation in central Apennines

Erratum to: Single‐Photon‐Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) with Technetium‐99m Sestamibi in the Diagnosis of Small Breast Cancer and Axillary Lymph Node Involvement

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Indici per la valutazione della qualit? ecologica dei laghi

Collection of methods to evaluate lake quality using biological element

Intraperitoneal drain placement and outcomes after elective colorectal surgery: international matched, prospective, cohort study

Despite current guidelines, intraperitoneal drain placement after elective colorectal surgery remains widespread. Drains were not associated with earlier detection of intraperitoneal collections, but were associated with prolonged hospital stay and increased risk of surgical-site infections.Background Many surgeons routinely place intraperitoneal drains after elective colorectal surgery. However, enhanced recovery after surgery guidelines recommend against their routine use owing to a lack of clear clinical benefit. This study aimed to describe international variation in intraperitoneal drain placement and the safety of this practice. Methods COMPASS (COMPlicAted intra-abdominal collectionS after colorectal Surgery) was a prospective, international, cohort study which enrolled consecutive adults undergoing elective colorectal surgery (February to March 2020). The primary outcome was the rate of intraperitoneal drain placement. Secondary outcomes included: rate and time to diagnosis of postoperative intraperitoneal collections; rate of surgical site infections (SSIs); time to discharge; and 30-day major postoperative complications (Clavien-Dindo grade at least III). After propensity score matching, multivariable logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards regression were used to estimate the independent association of the secondary outcomes with drain placement. Results Overall, 1805 patients from 22 countries were included (798 women, 44.2 per cent; median age 67.0 years). The drain insertion rate was 51.9 per cent (937 patients). After matching, drains were not associated with reduced rates (odds ratio (OR) 1.33, 95 per cent c.i. 0.79 to 2.23; P = 0.287) or earlier detection (hazard ratio (HR) 0.87, 0.33 to 2.31; P = 0.780) of collections. Although not associated with worse major postoperative complications (OR 1.09, 0.68 to 1.75; P = 0.709), drains were associated with delayed hospital discharge (HR 0.58, 0.52 to 0.66; P < 0.001) and an increased risk of SSIs (OR 2.47, 1.50 to 4.05; P < 0.001). Conclusion Intraperitoneal drain placement after elective colorectal surgery is not associated with earlier detection of postoperative collections, but prolongs hospital stay and increases SSI risk

A distributed amplifier system for bilayer lipid membrane (BLM) arrays with noise and individual offset cancellation

Lipid bilayer membrane (BLM) arrays are required for high throughput analysis, for example drug screening or advanced DNA sequencing. Complex microfluidic devices are being developed but these are restricted in terms of array size and structure or have integrated electronic sensing with limited noise performance. We present a compact and scalable multichannel electrophysiology platform based on a hybrid approach that combines integrated state-of-the-art microelectronics with low-cost disposable fluidics providing a platform for high-quality parallel single ion channel recording. Specifically, we have developed a new integrated circuit amplifier based on a novel noise cancellation scheme that eliminates flicker noise derived from devices under test and amplifiers. The system is demonstrated through the simultaneous recording of ion channel activity from eight bilayer membranes. The platform is scalable and could be extended to much larger array sizes, limited only by electronic data decimation and communication capabilities