Psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale (SABAS)

The aim of the present study was to test the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale (SABAS; Csibi et al., International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 16, 393–403, 2018), a short and easy to use six-item tool for screening the risk of addiction to smartphone-based applications. A further goal was to explore the impact on smartphone addiction of several variables related to smartphone use habits, perceived quality of life, and sociability measures. The data were collected online from 205 Italian-speaking volunteers (128 males and 77 females aged 18 to 99 years). The psychometric instruments included in the study were the SABAS and the Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q). Psychometric testing showed that the six items included in the SABAS comprised a unidimensional factor with good reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = .890). Therefore, the SABAS appears to be a reliable instrument to assess the risk of addiction to smartphone apps. Moreover, longer daily time spent using the smartphone was found to be positively correlated with the total SABAS and NMP-Q scores, while perceived quality of life and self-reported sociability were found to be negatively correlated with such scores

Psychometric validation of the Internet Disorder Scale–short form in an Italian adult sample

Research examining online addictions has conceptualized generalized internet addiction as an "umbrella" term comprising the addictive use of various online activities such as gambling, gaming, pornograpgy consumption shopping, and social media use. This has led to the development of many different psychometric instruments to assess specific forms of online addiction as well as ones that assess disordered internet use more generally. One such scale is the nine-item short-form Internet Disorder Scale (IDS9-SF) based on the DSM-5 criteria for internet gaming disorder. Although the IDS9-SF has been validated in a number of languages, it has not been validated into Italian. Therefore, the present study validated the IDS9-SF utilizing an Italian-speaking sample (N = 1477). Data were initially collected from 963 participants and the sample was equally split to carry out exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on the Italian IDS9-SF. Results showed that two items were problematic (i.e., in terms of asymmetry and kurtosis) so a slightly modified Italian IDS9-SF was developed (modifying the two items). Data were then collected from a further 514 participants to test the modified Italian IDS9-SF. The second sample was again equally split, and EFA and CFA were carried out. The modified Italian IDS9-SF was found to be a psychometrically robust measure for assessing the risk of internet disorder among Italian adults

Improved extractability of carotenoids from tomato peels as side benefits of PEF treatment of tomato fruit for more energy-efficient steam-assisted peeling

Abstract The combination of steam blanching (SB) with Pulsed Electric Fields (PEF) treatments of whole tomatoes, in addition to reducing the energy required for tomato peeling, can significantly contribute to the recovery of carotenoids from the peels. In this work, PEF (0.25-0-75 kV/cm, 1 kJ/kg) and SB (1 min at 50–70 °C), as pre-treatment prior to hand peeling, were investigated to assess their ability, separately and in combination, to induce the cell permeabilization of tomato peels, and hence to improve the carotenoids extraction in acetone (4 h at 25 °C). PEF and SB, by inducing significant damages at the cuticular level, caused the increase of the yield in total carotenoids (up to 188% for PEF and 189% for SB) and antioxidant power (up to 372% for PEF and 305% for SB) with respect to the peels from untreated tomatoes. The application of a combined treatment (PEF + SB) significantly increased the carotenoid content and the antioxidant power of the extracts, with a synergistic effect observed already at 60 °C (37.9 mg/100 g fresh weight tomato peels). HPLC analyses revealed that lycopene was the main carotenoid extracted and that neither PEF nor SB caused any selective release or degradation of lycopene. Results obtained from this study demonstrate that the integration of PEF in the processing line of tomato fruits prior to SB contributes to the valorization of tomato processing by-products

Psychometric analysis and validation of the Italian Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale

Social media use, and specifically Facebook use, has become increasingly popular over the past decade. Despite the many benefits of social networking, a small minority of individuals appear to develop issues surrounding social media use, and more specifically Facebook use. It has, therefore, led some scholars to describe such problematic activity as a behavioral addiction. Such problematic behaviors have been reported in many countries including Italy. The present study validated and examined the reliability and validity of the Italian version of the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS) by conducting a psychometric examination among an Italian sample of adults (n = 217; aged 18 to 68 years). Internal reliability was examined using various indicators, including Cronbach’s α, which was excellent (α = 0.94). Results indicated that Facebook addiction was significantly correlated with social media addiction, smartphone addiction, narcissism, depression, and self-esteem. The results of the present study support the use of the Italian version of the BFAS in research and confirms the uni-dimensional nature of the single factor proposed by the original authors

An n-of-one RCT for intravenous immunoglobulin G for inflammation in hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsy (HNPP).

Paroxysmal Cerebral Disorder

Validation and psychometric evaluation of the Italian version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale

Background: The advent of COVID-19 worldwide has led to consequences for people’s health, both physical and psychological, such as fear and anxiety. This is the case in Italy, one of the countries most affected by the pandemic. Given the heightened fear concerning COVID-19 in Italy., the present study analyzed the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S). Methods: The sample comprised 250 Italian participants who were administered Italian versions of the FCV-19S, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and the Severity Measure for Specific Phobia–Adult (SMSP-A). Several psychometric tests were performed to investigate the validity and reliability of the test including confirmatory factor analysis. Results: Analysis of the data showed satisfactory psychometric characteristics and confirmed the scale’s unidimensional properties. The seven FCV-19S items had acceptable correlations with the test total (from .443 to .784). Furthermore, the loadings on the factor were significant and strong (from .684 to .897). The internal consistency was very good (α = .871). Construct validity for the FCV-19S was supported by significant and positive correlations with the HADS (r=.649) and SMSP-A (r=.703). Conclusions: The Italian version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale is valid and reliable in assessing fear of COVID-19 among the general Italian population

Corticosterone enhances CSD susceptibility via glucocorticoid receptor activation in familial hemiplegic migraine 1 Cacna1a knock-in mice

Paroxysmal Cerebral Disorder

Learning Temporal Patterns of Risk in a Predator-Diverse Environment

Predation plays a major role in shaping prey behaviour. Temporal patterns of predation risk have been shown to drive daily activity and foraging patterns in prey. Yet the ability to respond to temporal patterns of predation risk in environments inhabited by highly diverse predator communities, such as rainforests and coral reefs, has received surprisingly little attention. In this study, we investigated whether juvenile marine fish, Pomacentrus moluccensis (lemon damselfish), have the ability to learn to adjust the intensity of their antipredator response to match the daily temporal patterns of predation risk they experience. Groups of lemon damselfish were exposed to one of two predictable temporal risk patterns for six days. “Morning risk” treatment prey were exposed to the odour of Cephalopholis cyanostigma (rockcod) paired with conspecific chemical alarm cues (simulating a rockcod present and feeding) during the morning, and rockcod odour only in the evening (simulating a rockcod present but not feeding). “Evening risk” treatment prey had the two stimuli presented to them in the opposite order. When tested individually for their response to rockcod odour alone, lemon damselfish from the morning risk treatment responded with a greater antipredator response intensity in the morning than in the evening. In contrast, those lemon damselfish previously exposed to the evening risk treatment subsequently responded with a greater antipredator response when tested in the evening. The results of this experiment demonstrate that P. moluccensis have the ability to learn temporal patterns of predation risk and can adjust their foraging patterns to match the threat posed by predators at a given time of day. Our results provide the first experimental demonstration of a mechanism by which prey in a complex, multi-predator environment can learn and respond to daily patterns of predation risk

Delayed Imitation of Lipsmacking Gestures by Infant Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta)

Human infants are capable of accurately matching facial gestures of an experimenter within a few hours after birth, a phenomenon called neonatal imitation. Recent studies have suggested that rather than being a simple reflexive-like behavior, infants exert active control over imitative responses and ‘provoke’ previously imitated gestures even after a delay of up to 24 h. Delayed imitation is regarded as the hallmark of a sophisticated capacity to control and flexibly engage in affective communication and has been described as an indicator of innate protoconversational readiness. However, we are not the only primates to exhibit neonatal imitation, and delayed imitation abilities may not be uniquely human. Here we report that 1-week-old infant rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) who show immediate imitation of a lipsmacking gesture also show delayed imitation of lipsmacking, facilitated by a tendency to refrain from lipsmacking toward a still face during baseline measurements. Individual differences in delayed imitation suggest that differentially matured cortical mechanisms may be involved, allowing some newborns macaques to actively participate in communicative exchanges from birth. Macaque infants are endowed with basic social competencies of intersubjective communication that indicate cognitive and emotional commonality between humans and macaques, which may have evolved to nurture an affective mother-infant relationship in primates

Frovatriptan versus zolmitriptan for the acute treatment of migraine with aura: a subgroup analysis of a double-blind, randomized, multicenter, Italian study

Migraine with aura affects ~20–30 % of migraineurs and it is much less common than migraine without aura. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of frovatriptan 2.5 mg and zolmitriptan 2.5 mg in the treatment of migraine with aura. Analysis was carried out in a subset of 18 subjects with migraine with aura (HIS criteria) out of the 107 enrolled in a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, cross-over study. According to the study design, each patient had to treat three episodes of migraine in no more than 3 months with one drug, before switching to the other treatment. The rate of pain-free episodes at 2 h was significantly (p < 0.05) larger under frovatriptan (45.8 %) than under zolmitriptan (16.7 %). Pain free at 4 h, pain relief at 2 and 4 h and recurrent episodes were similar between the two treatments, while sustained pain-free episode was significantly (p < 0.05) more frequent during frovatriptan treatment (33.3 vs. 8.3 % zolmitriptan). Our study suggests that frovatriptan is superior to zolmitriptan in the immediate treatment of patients with migraine with aura, and it is capable of maintaining its acute analgesic effect over 48 h