Attachment Styles and Communication of Displeasing Truths

This work explores how humans manage the communication of a displeasing and face-threatening truth and how the communicative strategies of the sender and the reaction of the receiver are influenced by their attachment style. Two experimental studies demonstrate that the attachment styles of both senders and receivers can influence the communicative styles of the sender, the emotions that both senders and receivers feel or attribute to their interlocutor, and the reactions of the receivers. In Study 1, couples of participants played a bogus computer game, ostensibly to test their abilities. Subsequently, “the spokesperson” was given the task to communicate to the “the receiver” a bogus low score of the other and a high score of oneself. Finally, all participants completed an adult Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ). A content analysis of the verbal messages of the spokespersons showed two main communication styles: frankness and mitigation. The results suggest that the spokespersons’ attachment style influences these communication styles. Using a similar procedure, Study 2 showed that spokespersons with a high avoidant attachment more frequently used frankness when communicating low scores to the receivers. Furthermore, the emotions and impressions reported by anxious and avoidant spokespersons and receivers, respectively, confirm the negative model of the self or the other, typical, respectively, in anxious and avoidant attachment. The detection of communicative strategies stemming from different attachment styles might be of use in user modeling and the planning of personalized systems

Epidemiology of intensive care unit-acquired sepsis in Italy: results of the SPIN-UTI network

BACKGROUND: Sepsis is the major cause of mortality from any infectious disease worldwide. Sepsis may be the result of a healthcare associated infection (HAI): the most frequent adverse events during care delivery especially in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). The main aim of the present study was to describe the epidemiology of ICU-acquired sepsis and related outcomes among patients enrolled in the framework of the Italian Nosocomial Infections Surveillance in ICUs - SPIN-UTI project. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective multicenter study. METHODS: The SPIN-UTI network adopted the European protocols for patient-based HAI surveillance. RESULTS: During the five editions of the SPIN-UTI project, from 2008 to 2017, 47.0% of HAIs has led to sepsis in 832 patients. Overall, 57.0% episodes were classified as sepsis, 20.5% as severe sepsis and 22.5% as septic shock. The most common isolated microorganisms from sepsis episodes were Acinetobacter baumannii, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The case fatality rate increased with the severity of sepsis and the mean length of ICU-stay was significantly higher in patients with ICU-acquired sepsis than in patients without. CONCLUSION: Our study provides evidence that ICU-acquired sepsis occurs frequently in Italian ICU patients and is associated with a high case fatality rate and increased length of stay. However, in order to explain these findings further analyses are needed in this population of ICU patient

A thermodynamic signature of lipid segregation in biomembranes induced by a short peptide derived from glycoprotein gp36 of feline immunodeficiency virus.

The interactions between proteins/peptides and lipid bilayers are fundamental in a variety of key biological processes, and among these, the membrane fusion process operated by viral glycoproteins is one of the most important, being a fundamental step of the infectious event. In the case of the feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), a small region of the membrane proximal external region (MPER) of the glycoprotein gp36 has been demonstrated to be necessary for the infection to occur, being able to destabilize the membranes to be fused. In this study, we report a physicochemical characterization of the interaction process between an eight-residue peptide, named C8, modeled on that gp36 region and some biological membrane models (liposomes) by using calorimetric and spectroscopic measurements. CD studies have shown that the peptide conformation changes upon binding to the liposomes. Interestingly, the peptide folds from a disordered structure (in the absence of liposomes) to a more ordered structure with a low but significant helix content. Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results show that C8 binds with high affinity the lipid bilayers and induces a significant perturbation/reorganization of the lipid membrane structure. The type and the extent of such membrane reorganization depend on the membrane composition. These findings provide interesting insights into the role of this short peptide fragment in the mechanism of virus-cell fusion, demonstrating its ability to induce lipid segregation in biomembranes

Prospects for SIMPLE 2000: A large-mass, low-background Superheated Droplet Detector for WIMP searches

SIMPLE 2000 (Superheated Instrument for Massive ParticLE searches) will consist of an array of eight to sixteen large active mass ($\sim15$ g) Superheated Droplet Detectors(SDDs) to be installed in the new underground laboratory of Rustrel-Pays d'Apt. Several factors make of SDDs an attractive approach for the detection of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), namely their intrinsic insensitivity to minimum ionizing particles, high fluorine content, low cost and operation near ambient pressure and temperature. We comment here on the fabrication, calibration and already-competitive first limits from SIMPLE prototype SDDs, as well as on the expected immediate increase in sensitivity of the program, which aims at an exposure of $>$25 kg-day during the year 2000. The ability of modest-mass fluorine-rich detectors to explore regions of neutralino parameter space beyond the reach of the most ambitious cryogenic projects is pointed out.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures included. New Journal of Physics, in pres

Is cerebrospinal fluid amyloid-β42 a promising biomarker of response to nusinersen in adult spinal muscular atrophy patients?

Introduction: Nusinersen was approved as the first treatment for all types of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), including adults with SMA types 2 and 3. Robust biomarkers of treatment response in SMA adults are lacking. Our aim was to examine cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) amyloid-β40 (Aβ40) and amyloid-β42 (Aβ42) peptides as biomarkers of treatment response. Methods: Eight patients with SMA types 2 and 3 were recruited consecutively in a single-center study. CSF was sampled at baseline, after a loading dose, and after three maintenance doses. Levels of Aβ42 and Aβ40 were evaluated for each CSF sampling. Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test was used to detect longitudinal changes. Results: CSF levels of Aβ42 increased from baseline to day 420 (95% confidence interval, P =.018), with a significant increase at days 180 and 420 compared with days 0 and 300, respectively (95% confidence interval, P =.012 and P =.018). Discussion: The maintenance and promotion of wellness of residual motor neurons mediated by the restored level of SMN protein due to nusinersen could result in an increased level of amyloid peptides

Inclusion of motor evoked abnormalities in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a diagnostic algorithm to early classify lower motor neuron phenotypes

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On the existence of supergravity duals to D1--D5 CFT states

We define a metric operator in the 1/2-BPS sector of the D1-D5 CFT, the eigenstates of which have a good semi-classical supergravity dual; the non-eigenstates cannot be mapped to semi-classical gravity duals. We also analyse how the data defining a CFT state manifests itself in the gravity side, and show that it is arranged into a set of multipoles. Interestingly, we find that quantum mechanical interference in the CFT can have observable manifestations in the semi-classical gravity dual. We also point out that the multipoles associated to the normal statistical ensemble fluctuate wildly, indicating that the mixed thermal state should not be associated to a semi-classical geometry.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figures. v2 : references added, typos correcte

Chirp management in silicon-graphene electro absorption modulators

We study the frequency chirp properties of graphene-on-silicon electro-absorption modulators (EAMs). By experimentally measuring the chirp of a 100 \ub5m long single layer graphene EAM, we show that the optoelectronic properties of graphene induce a large positive linear chirp on the optical signal generated by the modulator, giving rise to a maximum shift of the instantaneous frequency up to 1.8 GHz. We exploit this peculiar feature for chromatic-dispersion compensation in fiber optic transmission thanks to the pulse temporal lensing effect. In particular, we show dispersion compensation in a 10Gb/s transmission experiment on standard single mode fiber with temporal focusing distance (0-dB optical-signal-to-noise ratio penalty) of 60 km, and also demonstrate 100 km transmission with a bit error rate largely lower than the conventional Reed-Solomon forward error correction threshold of 10 123

Post-graduate medical education in public health: The case of Italy and a call for action

Public health technical expertise is of crucial importance to inform decision makers\u2019 action in the field of health and its broader determinants. Improving education and training of public health professionals for both practice and research is the starting point to strengthen the role of public health so that current health challenges can be efficiently tackled. At the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER) Deans\u2019 & Directors\u2019 2017 Annual Retreat, we presented the structure and management of public health training system in Italy, and we reported recent data on Italian public health specialists\u2019 educational experience, employment opportunities and job satisfaction. Public health training in Italy is implemented in the context of the post-graduate medical education residency programme in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, delivered by 34 University-based Schools of Public Health. We report relatively high employment rates across the county and wide spectrum of career opportunities for young public health specialists. However, job security is low and training expectations only partially met. We call upon other Schools of Public Health to scale up the survey within the broad ASPHER community in a shared and coordinated action of systematically collecting useful data that can inform the development of public health education and training models, their implementation and fruitful interaction with population health, health systems and services