Ultrasound of the Small Bowel in Crohn's Disease

Several radiological and endoscopic techniques are now available for the study of inflammatory bowel diseases. In everyday practice, the choice of the technique to be used depends upon its availability and a careful evaluation of diagnostic accuracy, clinical usefulness, safety, and cost. The recent development of innovative and noninvasive imaging techniques has led to a new and exciting area in the exploration of the gastrointestinal tract, especially in Crohn's disease patients by using ultrasound with oral or intravenous contrast

Ageing in southern Europe. Emerging perspectives and challenges for sociology

The process of transitioning to an ageing population has occurred later, but nevertheless more intensely, in Southern Europe than in other regions. Consequently, these countries have been forced to politically, socially and economically adapt to this significant challenge. Sociologists play an important role in identifying and understanding social trends and issues, as well as in contributing to the design of public policies across Europe. However, research has tended to explore issues of ageing populations in Northern Europe, in spite of the notable demographic shifts and contextual specificities of Southern Europe. In response, this study has a dual objective: first, to collect the theoretical and methodological contributions of authors from or focusing on Southern Europe, and second to explore the originality of studies that belong to Southern European sociological traditions. In order to systematise the study, the theoretical paradigm of Marshall’s classification of social science theories in the field of ageing is used. Specifically, the present study incorporates the topics of active ageing, adult education and ageing at work as the main foci of analysis. The results of this theoretical study show that the sociology of Southern Europe can contribute significantly both to the issue of ageing and to public policies for its management, in the process providing a more holistic and human-centred approach

Ultrasound and MRI appearance of abnormally adherent placenta in a woman with Asherman's syndrome

: Although 10% of pregnancies following treatment of Asherman's syndrome are estimated to have abnormal placental adhesion, there is a paucity of reports describing imaging features in such cases. We describe ultrasound and MRI features in one of such cases, showing a peculiar pattern of shallow but diffuse abnormally adherent placenta

The Assessment of the Public and Private Conveniences in the Urban Transformation Interventions: An Optimization Model for the Value Recapture Adoption

In the field of urban transformation interventions, the “privatization” of the potential indirect benefits is a crucial issue. In fact, if not adequately recaptured and managed they can favor the private developers or owners by reducing the share of acquirable public resources intended for the realization of new infrastructures and services. For this reason, the Extraordinary Urbanization Contribution (EUC) was introduced in Italy in 2014 with Art. 16, co.4 of DPR n. 380/2001 to allow an equitable redistribution - between the public and private subjects involved - of the surplus value generated by urban variant interventions. The lack of univocal guidance for determining this contribution has made its application difficult, therefore the work aims to provide a rational and methodological rigorous decision support model intended for the public administration for assessing the surplus value generated by complex urban variant intervention. Its methodological structure is based on goal programming optimization principles. In particular, the innovative contribution of the model is to provide the assessment of the surplus value of “complex” urban variant interventions, or those for which the inclusion of the “time” factor could affect the results and the conveniences of the parties involved. For these reasons, different discount rate values are assumed. The main findings regard the possibility of being used for supporting the public administrations in the correct application of the national regulations, also consistent with the value recapture and value sharing research streams, and for identifying the extra-profit margins and conveniences of the private subject involved

Renal Mitochondrial Cytopathies

Renal diseases in mitochondrial cytopathies are a group of rare diseases that are characterized by frequent multisystemic involvement and extreme variability of phenotype. Most frequently patients present a tubular defect that is consistent with complete De Toni-Debré-Fanconi syndrome in most severe forms. More rarely, patients present with chronic tubulointerstitial nephritis, cystic renal diseases, or primary glomerular involvement. In recent years, two clearly defined entities, namely 3243 A > G tRNALEU mutations and coenzyme Q10 biosynthesis defects, have been described. The latter group is particularly important because it represents the only treatable renal mitochondrial defect. In this paper, the physiopathologic bases of mitochondrial cytopathies, the diagnostic approaches, and main characteristics of related renal diseases are summarized

Metastatic cornual melanoma in a Valesian copperneck goat

A 10-year-old, neutered, male Valesian copperneck goat was presented to the Clinic for Ruminants, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern for a chronic wound at the base of the right horn first noticed 3 weeks before presentation. Clinical examination revealed a firm mass with ulcerations and malodorous discharge at the base of the right horn, and a duller sound on percussion of the right frontal sinus. Radiography revealed a soft tissue opacity filling the right cornual diverticulum of the frontal sinus. Upon wound debridement, tissue of grey to black discolorationwas noticed and sent in for histopathological examination, which confirmed the presence of a melanoma. Subsequent ultrasonography of the liver and radiography of the thorax revealed no sign of metastatic disease. Given the poor prognosis, the goat was euthanased, and postmortem examination revealed the presence of multiple metastatic lesions in the regional lymph nodes

Adult training as a quality factor in work trajectory: positive effects of adult training on seniority and ageing at work

Adult training is a fundamental strategy for the improvement of workers’ skills and employability. However, as workers age and remain in the same company, the risk of losing motivation for learning may grow. In a sample of 1,452 workers from 17 Spanish companies, we analyzed to what extent the training factor increases their quality of employment and the assessment they make of their organization, despite the negative effect of the passing of time. To do so, we implemented a structural equation model that considered the effects of the variables “seniority in the company” and “training” on quality of employment. We tested this model through multigroup analysis by differentiating between workers aged under 50 and those aged 50 years and older, showing that the positive effect of training is stronger in older workers and reduces the negative effect of seniority in the company for those aged under 50