Application of algal bioassays in the determination of eutrophic power of waste water (”Conclusions” only) [Translation from: 1g.Sanita pubbl. 31 257-267, 1975]

The best evidence for establishing the level of eutrophy of a water-body is its algal production which makes it possible to identify the type and the intensity of the eutrophication according to the kind and number of algal species present: when the number of algae exceeds half a million per litre then one speaks o an ”algal bloom”. The scope of the present research aims to verify if the alga Selenastrum capricornutum can be used as a test alga under our culture conditions and to determine the eutrophic level of the secondary effluent of a modern plant for the treatment of domestic discharge and to investigate the eventual ”limiting factors”. Finally this paper aims to study the effect on the secondary effluent of tertiary treatment carried out artificially in the laboratory

Therapeutic educational robot enhancing social interactions in the management of obesity

Obesity is a chronic multifactorial pathology determined by many factors, including incorrect eating habits and a low level of physical activity. There is an urgent need to promote a persistent change in lifestyle in obese subjects, but very few individuals maintain long-term results achieved after diet therapies. Therapeutic Education (TE) has taken over an important role as a multidisciplinary intervention aimed at improving lifestyle and at acquiring new skills for the management of the disease. However, only a small portion of patients can maintain participation in such programs and fully benefit from them. Assistive technologies, and in particular assistive social robots, are powerful tools to boost independence and improve participation in educational activities. The aim of the research work described in this article is to evaluate the effect of employing a social robot as a therapeutic educational robot helping the expert therapist in the education activity. This article describes the implementation, deployment, and evaluation of a social educational robot used as a TE assistant. Although we cannot provide statistically significant results due to the limited number of people involved in the experimental protocol, all experimental results show a positive trend, indicating that the robot can enhance the social interactions between the patients and the therapist and among the patients, thus bringing to better overall results of the TE sessions, measured with standard tests for obesity management

Prevalence and clinical features of celiac disease in a cohort of italian children with autism spectrum disorders

Background: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a heterogeneous group of neurodevelopmental conditions whose etiopathogenesis derives from a complex interaction between genetic liability and environmental factors. In this framework, mounting evidence suggests that immune system dysfunction could be a risk factor contributing to the development of ASD in at least a subpopulation of individuals. In particular, some studies suggest an association between celiac disease (CD)—a long‐term autoimmune disorder that primarily affects the small intestine triggered by the ingestion of gluten—and ASD, while others hypothesized a random link. This investigation aimed to evaluate the prevalence of CD in a large sample of school‐aged children with ASD and to characterize their clinical profile. Methods: Medical records of 405 children with ASD aged 5–11 years (mean age: 7.2 years; SD: 1.8 years) consecutively referred to a tertiary‐care university hospital between January 2014 and December 2018 were reviewed; among them, 362 had carried out serological testing for CD. Results: Nine patients with positive CD serology were identified, eight of which satisfied the criteria for CD diagnosis. The estimated CD prevalence in ASD children was 2.18% (95% CI, 0.8–3.7), which was not statistically different (1.58%; p = 0.36) from that of an Italian population, matched for age range, considered as a control group (95% CI, 1.26–1.90). Three out of the eight ASD patients with CD did not have any symptoms suggestive of CD. Conclusions: Our findings did not show a higher prevalence of CD in ASD children than in the control population, but could suggest the utility of routine CD screening, given its frequent atypical clinical presentation in this population

Pertussis-Associated Pneumonia in Infants and Children From Low- and Middle-Income Countries Participating in the PERCH Study.

BACKGROUND:  Few data exist describing pertussis epidemiology among infants and children in low- and middle-income countries to guide preventive strategies. METHODS:  Children 1-59 months of age hospitalized with World Health Organization-defined severe or very severe pneumonia in 7 African and Asian countries and similarly aged community controls were enrolled in the Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health study. They underwent a standardized clinical evaluation and provided nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs and induced sputum (cases only) for Bordetella pertussis polymerase chain reaction. Risk factors and pertussis-associated clinical findings were identified. RESULTS:  Bordetella pertussis was detected in 53 of 4200 (1.3%) cases and 11 of 5196 (0.2%) controls. In the age stratum 1-5 months, 40 (2.3% of 1721) cases were positive, all from African sites, as were 8 (0.5% of 1617) controls. Pertussis-positive African cases 1-5 months old, compared to controls, were more often human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) uninfected-exposed (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 2.2), unvaccinated (aOR, 3.7), underweight (aOR, 6.3), and too young to be immunized (aOR, 16.1) (all P ≤ .05). Compared with pertussis-negative African cases in this age group, pertussis-positive cases were younger, more likely to vomit (aOR, 2.6), to cough ≥14 days (aOR, 6.3), to have leukocyte counts \u3e20 000 cells/µL (aOR, 4.6), and to have lymphocyte counts \u3e10 000 cells/µL (aOR, 7.2) (all P ≤ .05). The case fatality ratio of pertussis-infected pneumonia cases 1-5 months of age was 12.5% (95% confidence interval, 4.2%-26.8%; 5/40); pertussis was identified in 3.7% of 137 in-hospital deaths among African cases in this age group. CONCLUSIONS:  In the postneonatal period, pertussis causes a small fraction of hospitalized pneumonia cases and deaths; however, case fatality is substantial. The propensity to infect unvaccinated infants and those at risk for insufficient immunity (too young to be vaccinated, premature, HIV-infected/exposed) suggests that the role for maternal vaccination should be considered along with efforts to reduce exposure to risk factors and to optimize childhood pertussis vaccination coverage

A novel integral representation for the Adler function

New integral representations for the Adler D-function and the R-ratio of the electron-positron annihilation into hadrons are derived in the general framework of the analytic approach to QCD. These representations capture the nonperturbative information encoded in the dispersion relation for the D-function, the effects due to the interrelation between spacelike and timelike domains, and the effects due to the nonvanishing pion mass. The latter plays a crucial role in this analysis, forcing the Adler function to vanish in the infrared limit. Within the developed approach the D-function is calculated by employing its perturbative approximation as the only additional input. The obtained result is found to be in reasonable agreement with the experimental prediction for the Adler function in the entire range of momenta $0 \le Q^2 < \infty$.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

The impact of time interval between hepatic resection and liver transplantation on clinical outcome in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatic resection (HR) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) may require secondary liver transplantation (SLT). However, a previous HR is supposed to worsen post-SLT outcomes. Data of patients treated by SLT between 2000 and 2018 at two tertiary referral centers were analyzed. The primary outcome of the study was to analyze the impact of HR on post-LT complications. A Comprehensive Complication Index ≥ 29.6 was chosen as cutoff. The secondary outcome was HCC-re-lated death by means of competing-risk regression analysis. In the study period, 140 patients were included. Patients were transplanted in a median of 23 months after HR (IQR 14–41). Among all the features analyzed regarding the prior HR, only time interval between HR and SLT (time HR-SLT) was an independent predictor of severe complications after LT (OR = 0.98, p &lt; 0.001). According to fractional polynomial regression, the probability of severe complications increased up to 15 months after HR (43%), then slowly decreased over time (OR = 0.88, p &lt; 0.001). There was no significant association between HCC-related death and time HR-SLT at the multivariable competing risks regression model (SHR, 1.06; 95% CI: 0.69–1.62, p = 0.796). This study showed that time HR-SLT was key in predicting complications after LT, without affecting HCC-related death

One-step bioengineering of magnetic nanoparticles via a surface diazo transfer/azide\u2013alkyne click reaction sequence

We have developed an efficient conversion of amino iron oxides to carbohydrate and protein derived nanoparticles with highly conserved bioactivity through a combination of diazo transfer and azide\u2013alkyne click technolog