Networked partisanship and framing: A socio-semantic network analysis of the Italian debate on migration

The huge amount of data made available by the massive usage of social media has opened up the unprecedented possibility to carry out a data-driven study of political processes. While particular attention has been paid to phenomena like elite and mass polarization during online debates and echo-chambers formation, the interplay between online partisanship and framing practices, jointly sustaining adversarial dynamics, still remains overlooked. With the present paper, we carry out a socio-semantic analysis of the debate about migration policies observed on the Italian Twittersphere, across the period May-November 2019. As regards the social analysis, our methodology allows us to extract relevant information about the political orientation of the communities of users—hereby called partisan communities—without resorting upon any external information. Remarkably, our community detection technique is sensitive enough to clearly highlight the dynamics characterizing the relationship among different political forces. As regards the semantic analysis, our networks of hashtags display a mesoscale structure organized in a core-periphery fashion, across the entire observation period. Taken altogether, our results point at different, yet overlapping, trajectories of conflict played out using migration issues as a backdrop. A first line opposes communities discussing substantively of migration to communities approaching this issue just to fuel hostility against political opponents; within the second line, a mechanism of distancing between partisan communities reflects shifting political alliances within the governmental coalition. Ultimately, our results contribute to shed light on the complexity of the Italian political context characterized by multiple poles of partisan alignment

Comparison of photocatalytic and transport properties of TiO2 and ZnO nanostructures for solar-driven water splitting

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) and zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures have been widely used as photo-catalysts due to their low-cost, high surface area, robustness, abundance and non-toxicity. In this work, four TiO2 and ZnO - based nanostructures, i.e. TiO2 nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs), TiO2 nanotubes (TiO2 NTs), ZnO nanowires (ZnO NWs) and ZnO@TiO2 core-shell structures, specifically prepared with a fixed thickness of about 1.5 μm, are compared for the solar-driven water splitting reaction, under AM1.5G simulated sunlight. A complete characterization of these photo-electrodes in their structural and photo-electrochemical properties was carried out. Both TiO2 NPs and NTs showed photo-current saturation reaching 0.02 and 0.12 mA/cm2, respectively, for potential values of about 0.3 and 0.6 V vs. RHE. In contrast, the ZnO NWs and the ZnO@TiO2 core-shell samples evidence a linear increase of the photocurrent with the applied potential, reaching 0.45 and 0.63 mA/cm2 at 1.7 V vs. RHE, respectively. However, under concentrated light conditions, the TiO2 NTs demonstrate a higher increase of the performance with respect to the ZnO@TiO2 core-shells. Such material dependent behaviours are discussed in relation with the different charge transport mechanisms and interfacial reaction kinetics, which were investigated through electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The role of key parameters such as electronic properties, specific surface area and photo-catalytic activity on the performance of these materials are discussed. Moreover, proper optimization strategies are analyzed in view of increasing the efficiency of the best performing TiO2 and ZnO - based nanostructures, toward their practical application in a solar water splitting device

New Transparent Laser-Drilled Fluorine-doped Tin Oxide covered Quartz Electrodes for Photo-Electrochemical Water Splitting

A new-designed transparent, conductive and porous electrode was developed for application in a compact laboratory-scale proton exchange membrane (PEM) photo-electrolyzer. The electrode is made of a thin transparent quartz sheet covered with fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO), in which an array of holes is laser-drilled to allow water and gas permeation. The electrical, morphological, optical and electrochemical characterization of the drilled electrodes is presented in comparison with a non-drilled one. The drilled electrode exhibits, in the visible region, a good transmittance (average value of 62%), a noticeable reflectance due to the light scattering effect of the hole-drilled internal region, and a higher effective surface area than the non-drilled electrode. The proof-of-concept of the applicability of the drilled electrode was achieved by using it as a support for a traditional photocatalyst (i.e. commercial TiO2 nanoparticles). The latter, coupled with a polymeric electrolyte membrane (i.e.Nafion 117) and a Pt counter electrode, forms a transparent membrane electrode assembly (MEA), with a good conductivity, wettability and porosity. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was used as a very powerful tool to gain information on the real active surface of the new drilled electrode and the main electrochemical parameters driving the charge transfer reactions on it. This new electrode architecture is demonstrated to be an ideal support for testing new anodic and cathodic photoactive materials working in tandem configuration for solar fuels production by water photo-electrolysis

Adverse effects of antipsychotics on sleep in patients with schizophrenia. Systematic review and meta-analysis

IntroductionOur objective was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of adverse effects on sleep in patients with schizophrenia receiving antipsychotic treatment.MethodsA systematic search was performed in PubMed, Cochrane Central, Embase, Toxline, Ebsco, Virtual Health Library, Web of Science, SpringerLink, and in Database of abstracts of Reviews of Effects of Randomized Clinical Trials to identify eligible studies published from January 1990 to October 2021. The methodological quality of the studies was evaluated using the CONSORT list, and the Cochrane bias tool. Network meta-analysis was performed using the Bayesian random-effects model, with multivariate meta-regression to assess the association of interest.Results87 randomized clinical trials were identified that met the inclusion criteria, and 70 articles were included in the network meta-analysis. Regarding the methodological quality of the studies, 47 had a low or moderate bias risk. The most common adverse effects on sleep reported in the studies were insomnia, somnolence, and sedation. The results of the network meta-analysis showed that ziprasidone was associated with an increased risk of insomnia (OR, 1.56; 95% credible interval CrI, 1.18–2.06). Several of the included antipsychotics were associated with a significantly increased risk of somnolence; haloperidol (OR, 1.90; 95% CrI, 1.12–3.22), lurasidone (OR, 2.25; 95% CrI, 1.28–3.97) and ziprasidone (OR, 1.79; 95% CrI, 1.06–3.02) had the narrowest confidence intervals. In addition, perphenazine (OR, 5.33; 95% CrI, 1.92–14.83), haloperidol (OR, 2.61; 95% CrI, 1.14–5.99), and risperidone (OR, 2.41; 95% CrI, 1.21–4.80) were associated with an increased risk of sedation compared with placebo, and other antipsychotics did not differ. According to the SUCRAs for insomnia, chlorpromazine was ranked as the lowest risk of insomnia (57%), followed by clozapine (20%), while flupentixol (26 %) and perospirone (22.5%) were associated with a lower risk of somnolence. On the other hand, amisulpride (89.9%) was the safest option to reduce the risk of sedation.DiscussionInsomnia, sedation, and somnolence were the most frequent adverse effects on sleep among the different antipsychotics administered. The evidence shows that chlorpromazine, clozapine, flupentixol, perospirone, and amisulpride had favorable safety profiles. In contrast, ziprasidone, perphenazine, haloperidol, and risperidone were the least safe for sleep.Systematic review registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42017078052, identifier: PROSPERO 2017 CRD42017078052

Overall mortality in combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema related to systemic sclerosis

OBJECTIVES: This multicentre study aimed to investigate the overall mortality of combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema (CPFE) in systemic sclerosis (SSc) and to compare CPFE-SSc characteristics with those of other SSc subtypes (with interstitial lung disease-ILD, emphysema or neither). METHODS: Chest CTs, anamnestic data, immunological profile and pulmonary function tests of patients with SSc were retrospectively collected. Each chest CT underwent a semiquantitative assessment blindly performed by three radiologists. Patients were clustered in four groups: SSc-CPFE, SSc-ILD, SSc-emphysema and other-SSc (without ILD nor emphysema). The overall mortality of these groups was calculated by Kaplan-Meier method and compared with the stratified log-rank test; Kruskal-Wallis test, t-Student test and χ² test assessed the differences between groups. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: We enrolled 470 patients (1959 patient-year); 15.5 % (73/470) died during the follow-up. Compared with the SSc-ILD and other-SSc, in SSc-CPFE there was a higher prevalence of males, lower anticentromere antibodies prevalence and a more reduced pulmonary function (p<0.05). The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis demonstrates a significantly worse survival in patients with SSc-CPFE (HR vs SSc-ILD, vs SSc-emphysema and vs other-SSc, respectively 1.6 (CI 0.5 to 5.2), 1.6 (CI 0.7 to 3.8) and 2.8 (CI 1.2 to 6.6). CONCLUSIONS: CPFE increases the mortality risk in SSc along with a highly impaired lung function. These findings strengthen the importance to take into account emphysema in patients with SSc with ILD

Geographical heterogeneity of clinical and serological phenotypes of systemic sclerosis observed at tertiary referral centres. The experience of the Italian SIR-SPRING registry and review of the world literature

Introduction: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is characterized by a complex etiopathogenesis encompassing both host genetic and environmental -infectious/toxic- factors responsible for altered fibrogenesis and diffuse microangiopathy. A wide spectrum of clinical phenotypes may be observed in patients' populations from different geographical areas. We investigated the prevalence of specific clinical and serological phenotypes in patients with definite SSc enrolled at tertiary referral centres in different Italian geographical macro-areas. The observed findings were compared with those reported in the world literature.Materials and methods: The clinical features of 1538 patients (161 M, 10.5%; mean age 59.8 +/- 26.9 yrs.; mean disease duration 8.9 +/- 7.7 yrs) with definite SSc recruited in 38 tertiary referral centres of the SPRING (Systemic sclerosis Progression INvestiGation Group) registry promoted by Italian Society of Rheumatology (SIR) were obtained and clustered according to Italian geographical macroareas.Results: Patients living in Southern Italy were characterized by more severe clinical and/or serological SSc phenotypes compared to those in Northern and Central Italy; namely, they show increased percentages of diffuse cutaneous SSc, digital ulcers, sicca syndrome, muscle involvement, arthritis, cardiopulmonary symptoms, interstitial lung involvement at HRCT, as well increased prevalence of serum anti-Scl70 autoantibodies. In the same SSc population immunusppressive drugs were frequently employed. The review of the literature underlined the geographical heterogeneity of SSc phenotypes, even if the observed findings are scarcely comparable due to the variability of methodological approaches.Conclusion: The phenotypical differences among SSc patients' subgroups from Italian macro-areas might be correlated to genetic/environmental co-factors, and possibly to a not equally distributed national network of information and healthcare facilities