Professional changes and new challenges in the field of international aid. The case of a professional master on educational inclusion

The international scenario seems today characterized by an increasingly level of tensions and widespread conflicts, some of which have taken the shape of real humanitarian emergencies, especially the war in Syria, among the worst in the last decades. Global political change and cultural transformations across the world occur at many levels.On the one hand, national borders and social boundaries are increasingly blurred and constantly (re)drawn as result of the civil wars and massive migration flows. To this regard, the increase in the number of asylum-seekers in EU Member States over the past two decades has became deeply connected with the rise of exclusionary forms of ethnocentrism and populism.On the other hand, the terrorist movements and the political instability in both the Middle East and African countries have made more difficult for vulnerable people achieve inclusion and peace. Growing forms of inequality, generated by a globalization process, have often neglected a fragile balance between the local and global processes, especially in the poorest countries, informing the conservative trends of many Western democracies.The global changing scenario have forced the humanitarian and aid organizations to frame new agendas and re-think the traditional approaches in pursuing stability and promoting inclusion around the world. Indeed, there is an urgent need for professional changes in the way the international community face humanitarian crisis and violations of human rights.Engaged with this issue, Italy finds itself in the strategic position to overcome the inadequacy of European responses to the making of development policies as well as solutions facing the growing arrival of refugees and migrants crossing the European borders. To this regard, the new Italian Law 125/2014 can be seen as part of a broader international policy, which resists and contrasts the new populism that animates Europe, supporting inclusive policies.The Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, even if still processing its model, finds a crucial opportunity to build a renewed approach of cooperation where the Italian universities, among the other institutions, can make their contribution in the field of development and humanitarian aid, opening the “Third Mission” to a development-oriented international effort, as the United Nations Agenda 2030 states.The University of Bologna 2016-2018 Strategic Plan has included the international cooperation actions under the Third Mission, placing them within the Goal 17 of Agenda 2030, that is to strengthen “the means of implementation” and renew the global partnership for sustainable development.In order to achieve these goals, the Department of Education Sciences aims both to become increasingly involved in the internationalcooperation projects(such as, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East) and to promote the training activities addressed to the experts engaging with the educational issues.  Within this background, the paper aims to introduce the training experience of a new Professional Master – which was planned thanks to a past successful experience - in order to discuss the new challenges that these professionals have to face in the changing global scenario.If, on the one hand, the educational dimension includes a wider social function, becoming strategic to all the actions aimed at pursuing human development, on the other hand, the interweaving of the above-mentioned processes makes more difficult the negotiation of shared meanings to which the professionals refer to practice in the field. Among the other, we can observe the difficulty to link emergency humanitarian action to a more organic frame of development interventions. In socio-educational sector, in particular, this tension between emergency and development could fall into naive assistentialism, “paternalistic” attitudes, or takes the shape of an explicit or implicit “cultural colonialism” informing the international interventions.Within this frame, the Professional Master "International Cooperation and educational inclusion: new professional challenges” will address its effort in training new professional profiles engaged with the humanitarian aid and international development fields as well as a wide range of multicultural reception policies (at the local and national level) towards migrants, children of foreign origins, refugees and asylum seekers.For this reason, the Department has decided to link the training experience to a research activities aimed at explore more in depth the skills and methodologies addressed to such specific professional profile.Complementing the Master, the empirical research will aim, firstly, to collect interviews with some privilege witnesses. In particular, people involved will be practitioners, experts, project managers from non-governmental organizations, international organizations multilateral and bilateral agencies, non-profit associations, social cooperatives, local or national agencies committed to contrast socio-educational marginality as well as to the governance of migration and forced migration.Moreover, the research will also be a way to monitor the developing of the Professional Master, showing lights and shadows of this post-graduate experiences.Finally, it will understand if and how the training activities, and their inter-disciplinary background on the topic pf educational inclusion - from pedagogical issues to socio-anthropological knowledges - are in line with the complexity of the contexts where the students shall work in the future.Thanks to the contribution of the main Italian institutional actors, such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the AICS, both the research and the Master can be seen as a significant arena  to strengthen the synergy between the practical and the theoretical-political dimension of the international cooperation, providing to the universities a leading role in training new professionals in such field.For this reason, the Department has decided to link the training experience to a research activities aimed at explore more in depth the skills and methodologies addressed to such specific professional profile.Complementing the Master, the empirical research will aim, firstly, to collect interviews with some privilege witnesses. In particular, people involved will be practitioners, experts, project managers from non-governmental organizations, international organizations multilateral and bilateral agencies, non-profit associations, social cooperatives, local or national agencies committed to contrast socio-educational marginality as well as to the governance of migration and forced migration

Fecal shedding of thermophilic Campylobacter in a dairy herd producing raw milk for direct human consumption.

Factors affecting the thermophilic Campylobacter fecal shedding in Italian dairy farming conditions have been investigated in a 12-month longitudinal study performed in a dairy farm authorized to sell raw milk in Italy. Fifty animals were randomly selected from 140 adult and young animals, and fecal sampling was performed six times at two month intervals; additionally at each sampling, three trough water samples and two trough feed samples were collected for both adult and young animals. Samples were analyzed by real-time PCR and cultural examination. Overall 33 samples (9.7%) were positive for thermophilic Campylobacter by real-time PCR: 26 out of 280 (9.2%) fecal samples, six out of 36 water points (16.6%) and one of the 24 feed samples (4.2%). Campylobacter jejuni was isolated from 6 out of 280 samples; no other Campylobacter sp. was isolated. A higher but not significant positivity was observed in fecal samples of younger animals (11.33%% versus 6.92% of adult animals) and a higher and significant positivity was observed in water samples collected from the water troughs of young animals. A distinct temporal dynamic trend was observed during the study period for both cows and calves, with two prevalence peaks between November/December and between May/July. Several factors such as calving, housing practices, herd size, management practices forcing together a higher number of animals, variations in feeding or water source, which were previously reported as cause of temporal variation in different farming conditions, could be excluded as cause of the two seasonal peaks in this study. The factors affecting the seasonality of Campylobacter shedding in the dairy herds remain unclear and warrant further investigation. The results of the present study indicate that special attention should be paid to farm hygiene management in farms authorized to produce and sell raw milk with increased surveillance by the authorities in certain periods of the year

The renal resistive index is associated with microvascular remodeling in patients with severe obesity

BACKGROUND Renal hemodynamics is impaired since the early stage of cardiometabolic disease. However, in obesity, its noninvasive ultrasound assessment still fails to provide pathophysiologic and clinical meaningfulness. We aimed to explore the relationship between peripheral microcirculation and renal hemodynamics in severe obesity. METHODS We enrolled fifty severely obese patients with an indication for bariatric referring to our outpatient clinic. Patients underwent an extensive reno-metabolic examination, paired with Doppler ultrasound and measurement of the renal resistive index (RRI). On the day of the surgery, visceral fat biopsies were collected to perform an ex-vivo complete microcirculatory assessment. Media-to-lumen ratio (M/L) and vascular response to acetylcholine (ACh), alone or co-incubated with N G -nitro arginine methyl ester (L-NAME), were measured. RESULTS Patients were stratified according to their normotensive (NT) or hypertensive (HT) status. HT had lower estimated glomerular filtration rate and higher RRI compared to NT, while the presence and extent of albuminuria were similar between the two groups. Concerning microcirculatory assessment, there were no differences between groups as regards the microvascular structure, while the vasorelaxation to ACh was lower in HT ( P = 0.042). Multivariable analysis showed a relationship between M/L and RRI ( P  = 0.016, St. β 0.37) and between albuminuria and the inhibitory response of L-NAME to Ach vasodilation ( P   =  0.036, St. β = -0.34). Notably, all these correlations were consistent also after adjustment for confounding factors. CONCLUSIONS The RRI and albuminuria relationship with microvascular remodeling in patients affected by severe obesity supports the clinical implementation of RRI to improve risk stratification in obesity and suggests a tight pathophysiologic connection between renal haemodynamics and microcirculatory disruption

A pH-responsive crosslinker platform for antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting delivery

We report a new 1-6 self-immolative, traceless crosslinker derived from the natural product gallic acid. The linker acts through a pH-dependent mechanism for drug release. This 5-(hydroxymethyl)pyrogallol orthoester derivative (HMPO) was stable for 24 hours at pH values of 7.4 and 6.6 and in plasma, releasing molecules bound to the hydroxymethyl moiety under acid-dependent stimuli at pH 5.5. The linker was non-toxic and was used for the conjugation of Doxorubicin (Doxo) or Combretastatin A4 with Cetuximab. The ADCs formed showed their pH responsivity reducing cell viability of A431 and A549 cancer cells better than Cetuximab alone. © 2022 The Royal Society of Chemistry

Loggerhead Sea Turtle as Possible Source of Transmission for Zoonotic Listeriosis in the Marine Environment

Listeria monocytogenes is an ubiquitous pathogen isolated from different host species including fish, crustaceans, and molluscs, but it is rarely a pathogenic microorganism to marine reptiles. In particular, only two cases of fatal disseminated listeriosis have been described in the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta). In this study, we describe a lethal case of L. monocytogenes infection in a loggerhead sea turtle. The turtle was found alive, stranded on a beach in North-eastern Italy, but perished soon after being rescued. The autoptic examination revealed that heart, lung, liver, spleen, and urinary bladder were disseminated with multiple, firm, 0.1–0.5 mm sized, nodular, white-green lesions. Microscopically, these lesions corresponded with heterophilic granulomas with Gram+ bacteria within the necrotic center. Furthermore, the Ziehl–Neelsen stain was negative for acid-fast organisms. Colonies isolated from heart and liver were tested through MALDI-TOF for species identification, revealing the presence of L. monocytogenes. Whole Genome Sequencing on L. monocytogenes isolates was performed and the subsequent in silico genotyping revealed the belonging to Sequence Type 6 (ST 6); the virulence profile was evaluated, showing the presence of pathogenicity islands commonly observed in ST 6. Our results further confirm that L. monocytogenes should be posed in differential diagnosis in case of nodular lesions of loggerhead sea turtles; thus, given the zoonotic potential of the microorganism, animals should be treated with particular caution. In addition, wildlife animals can play an active role as carriers of possibly pathogenetic and virulent strains and contribute to the distribution of L. monocytogenes in the environment

Effects of an intensive inpatient rehabilitation program in elderly patients with obesity

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the short-term effectiveness of an intensive inpatient multidimensional rehabilitation program (MRP), including diet, exercise, and behavioral therapy, in elderly patients with severe obesity. Methods: Forty-four elderly patients (old; age 69.3 \ub1 3.5 years, BMI 41.9 \ub1 14.9) were analyzed against 215 younger patients (young; age 48.2 \ub1 18.5 years, BMI 43.9 \ub1 9.4), who were used as controls. All patients underwent MRP, based on group therapy guided by a multidisciplinary team (physicians, dietitians, exercise trainers, psychologists). We evaluated changes in anthropometry, cardiovascular risk factors, physical fitness, quality of life, and eating behavior. Results: After 3 weeks of MRP, we observed a reduction in body weight (old -3.8%, young -4.3%), BMI (old -3.9%, young -4.4%), waist circumference (old -3.4%, young -4.1%), total cholesterol (old -14.0%, young -15.0%), and fasting glucose (old -8.3%, young -8.1%), as well as improved performance in the Six-Minute-Walk Test (old +28.7%, young +15.3%), chair-stand test (old +24.8%, young +26.9%), and arm-curl test (old +15.2%, young +27.3%). Significant improvement was registered in all other analyzed domains. Conclusion: Our 3-week MRP provided significant clinical and functional improvement, which was similar between elderly and younger patients with severe obesity. In the long-term, this may be translated into better quality of life, through better management of obesity-associated morbidities and reduced frailty

Intra-tumoral IFN-gamma-producing Th22 cells correlate with TNM staging and the worst outcomes in pancreatic cancer

PDAC (pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma) is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related death. The causes of this cancer remain unknown, but increasing evidence indicates a key role of the host immune response and cytokines in human carcinogenesis. Intra-tumoral IL (interleukin)-22 levels have been shown to be elevated in PDAC patients. However, little is known regarding the expression and clinical relevance of Th22 cells in human PDAC and, furthermore, which TILs (tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes) are the main producers of IL-22 is unknown. In the present study, we characterized the functional proprieties of the different subsets of IL-22-producing TILs and analysed their relationship with the TNM staging system and patient survival. We have demonstrated for the first time that, in PDAC patients, the T-cells co-producing IFN-gamma (interferon gamma) and exerting perforin-mediated cytotoxicity are the major intra-tumoral source of IL-22. In addition, isolated Th22 cells were able to induce apoptosis, which was antagonized by IL-22. Finally, we observed that the IL-22-producing T-cells were significantly increased in tumour tissue and that this increase was positively correlated with TNM staging of PDAC and poorer patient survival. These novel findings support the dual role of the anti-tumour immune system and that IL-22-producing cells may participate in PDAC pathogenesis. Therefore monitoring Th22 levels could be a good diagnostic parameter, and blocking IL-22 signalling may represent a viable method for anti-PDAC therapies

Effects of an Intensive Inpatient Rehabilitation Program in Elderly Patients with Obesity

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the short-term effectiveness of an intensive inpatient multidimensional rehabilitation program (MRP), including diet, exercise, and behavioral therapy, in elderly patients with severe obesity. Methods: Forty-four elderly patients (old; age 69.3 ± 3.5 years, BMI 41.9 ± 14.9) were analyzed against 215 younger patients (young; age 48.2 ± 18.5 years, BMI 43.9 ± 9.4), who were used as controls. All patients underwent MRP, based on group therapy guided by a multidisciplinary team (physicians, dietitians, exercise trainers, psychologists). We evaluated changes in anthropometry, cardiovascular risk factors, physical fitness, quality of life, and eating behavior. Results: After 3 weeks of MRP, we observed a reduction in body weight (old –3.8%, young –4.3%), BMI (old –3.9%, young –4.4%), waist circumference (old –3.4%, young –4.1%), total cholesterol (old –14.0%, young –15.0%), and fasting glucose (old –8.3%, young –8.1%), as well as improved performance in the Six-Minute-Walk Test (old +28.7%, young +15.3%), chair-stand test (old +24.8%, young +26.9%), and arm-curl test (old +15.2%, young +27.3%). Significant improvement was registered in all other analyzed domains. Conclusion: Our 3-week MRP provided significant clinical and functional improvement, which was similar between elderly and younger patients with severe obesity. In the long-term, this may be translated into better quality of life, through better management of obesity-associated morbidities and reduced frailty