Threshold-based Naïve Bayes classifier

The Threshold-based Naive Bayes (Tb-NB) classifier is introduced as a (simple) improved version of the original Naive Bayes classifier. Tb-NB extracts the sentiment from a Natural Language text corpus and allows the user not only to predict how much a sentence is positive (negative) but also to quantify a sentiment with a numeric value. It is based on the estimation of a single threshold value that concurs to define a decision rule that classifies a text into a positive (negative) opinion based on its content. One of the main advantage deriving from Tb-NB is the possibility to utilize its results as the input of post-hoc analysis aimed at observing how the quality associated to the different dimensions of a product or a service or, in a mirrored fashion, the different dimensions of customer satisfaction evolve in time or change with respect to different locations. The effectiveness of Tb-NB is evaluated analyzing data concerning the tourism industry and, specifically, hotel guests' reviews from all hotels located in the Sardinian region and available on Booking.com. Moreover, Tb-NB is compared with other popular classifiers used in sentiment analysis in terms of model accuracy, resistance to noise and computational efficiency

The Magnetic Distortion Calibration System of the LHCb RICH1 Detector

The LHCb RICH1 detector uses hybrid photon detectors (HPDs) as its optical sensors. A calibration system has been constructed to provide corrections for distortions that are primarily due to external magnetic fields. We describe here the system design, construction, operation and performance.Comment: 9 pages, 14 figure

Association between burnout and sense of coherence among speech and language therapists: an exploratory study in Italy

Background and aim: Job burnout has been recognized as a serious occupational hazard among professionals, such as health care professionals. The sense of coherence (SoC) is deemed to be a personal resource capable of reducing the impact of job stressors and, consequently, the experience of job burnout. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between SoC and job burnout among speech and language therapists. Materials and methods: A descriptive and cross-sectional analysis was carried out through an online self-reported questionnaire. A total of 217 Italian speech and language therapists were involved in the study. The Anova test, T-test and logistic regression were performed to study the association between SoC and job burnout. Results: The Anova test showed that job tenure was not associated to job burnout. The T-test showed that speech and language therapists having a low SoC exhibited significantly higher emotional exhaustion, higher cynicism, and lower professional efficacy (t=-7.190 d.f.=215 p<.001) when compared to those having a high SoC. Finally, the odds ratio showed that low SoC was associated with high emotional exhaustion (OR=11.86; 95% CI=5.52-25.49; p<0.05), low SoC was associated with high cynicism (OR=4.41, CI=2.50-7.80; p<0.05), and low SoC was associated with low personal efficacy (OR=4.70; CI=2.59-8.52; p<0.05). Conclusion: Our results are in line with previous studies which showed that SoC is a fundamental personal resource which may activate workers’ reaction to various stressors, thus reducing the experience of burnout. (www.actabiomedica.it

Worries, Preparedness, and Perceived Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Nurses' Mental Health

Background: In times of global public health emergency, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses stand at the front line, working in close contact with infected individuals. Being actively engaged in fighting against COVID-19 exposes nurses to a high risk of being infected but can also have a serious impact on their mental health, as they are faced with excessive workload and emotional burden in many front-line operating contexts. Purpose: The aim of the study is to analyze how risk factors such as perceived impact, preparedness to the pandemic, and worries were associated with mental health outcomes (crying, rumination and stress) in nurses. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was performed via an online questionnaire survey. Participants included 894 registered nurses from Italy. Participation was voluntary and anonymous. Multiple binary logistic regression was carried out to analyze the relationship between risk factors and health outcomes. Results: Increased job stress was related to higher levels of rumination about the pandemic (OR = 4.04, p < 0.001), job demand (OR = 2.00, p < 0.001), impact on job role (OR = 2.56, p < 0.001), watching coworkers crying at work (OR = 1.50, p < 0.05), non-work-related concerns (OR = 2.28, p < 0.001), and fear of getting infected (OR = 2.05, p < 0.001). Job stress (OR = 2.52, p < 0.01), rumination (OR = 2.28, p < 0.001), and watching colleagues crying (OR = 7.92, p < 0.001) were associated with crying at work. Rumination was associated with caring for patients who died of COVID-19 (OR = 1.54, p < 0.05), job demand (OR = 1.70, p < 0.01), watching colleagues crying (OR = 1.81, p < 0.001), non-work-related worries (OR = 1.57, p < 0.05), and fear of getting infected (OR = 2.02, p < 0.001). Conclusions: The psychological impact that this pandemic may cause in the medium/long term could be greater than the economical one. This is the main challenge that health organizations will have to face in the future. This study highlights that the perceived impact and worries about the pandemic affect nurses' mental health and can impact on their overall effectiveness during the pandemic. Measures to enhance nurses' protection and to lessen the risk of depressive symptoms and post-traumatic stress should be planned promptly

Effect of Appendectomy on ClinicalCourse of Diverticulosis

Diverticulitis is a common condition where inflammation seems to play a key role in all forms of the disease. Since diverticular disease, in some cases, exhibits clinical and histopathologic similarities with the idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease, could have in common, with these some environmental risk factors, as appendectomy, that could interfere with the natural history of diverticular disease. Since the prevalence and the role of appendectomy in patients with colonic diverticula has not been defined, the aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of appendectomy, both in uncomplicated diverticular disease and in patients with diverticulitis. Two hundred and seven consecutive patients with verified diagnosis of diverticular disease of the colon were enrolled. Diagnosis of diverticulitis was defined by means of clinical, colonoscopic, and computerised tomography criteria. Logistic regression was used to describe the relation between the dependent variable (diverticulitis) and several covariates: sex, age (60), BMI (26), and history of appendectomy (emergency or elective appendectomy). We included the first order interactions in the model to assess the effect of each variable for a particular degree of the others covariates. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software. Results: The first order interactions did not show a relevant effect (p>0.10) and therefore were excluded from the logistic model. Sex (p=0.88), BMI (p=0.80), elective appendectomy (p=0.17), age (p=0,11), do not affect significantly, either as an independent variable or as a confounder, the risk of development of diverticulitis, and therefore were also excluded from the model. According to the final model the risk of diverticulitis is 4,94 fold higher (95% confidence interval: 1.98 to 12.37) in patients with history of appendectomy with emergency operative treatment, compared with patients without appendectomy or history of elective resection (p<0.001. Conclusions: The risk of diverticulitis does not increase in patients with elective appendectomy, therefore only patients with emergency appendectomy have an increased risk of diverticuliti

USE OF GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY ORAL CHROMA™ IN THE ASSESSMENT OF VOLATILE SULFUR COMPOUNDS FOR BREATH’S ANALYSIS IN ORAL AND GASTRIC AFFECTION

Introduction: Breathomics (Breath-based metabolomics) is a new biotechnology approach that allow us to diagnose some human diseases by the oral breath analysis.The method is based on the identi#cation and quanti#cation of volatile organic compound (VOC) in breath, by a new portable gas chromatography’s tools such as Oral Chroma®. This instrument is able to detect and quantify three different volatile sulfur compounds, VSC ( H2S, CH3S ,(CH3)2S) in 5 ml of oral breath, in fast time and with good analytical accuracy. In addition, different authors recently have been described as a comparative analysis of VSC could be useful in the diagnosis of different oral or systemic diseases such as: (i) oral tongue halitosis or/and gastric affection such as Helicobacter pylori infectio

Brain Volume and Perception of Cognitive Impairment in People With Multiple Sclerosis and Their Caregivers

Background: Cognitive impairment (CI) is common in people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS). The assessment of CI is based on neuropsychological tests and accurate anamnesis, involving the patients and caregivers (CG). This study aimed to assess the complex interplay between self-perception of CI, objective CI and the brain atrophy of MS patients, also exploring the possible differences with CI evaluated by caregivers. Methods: Relapsing pwMS were enrolled in this study. Subjects underwent neuropsychological examination using the Brief Cognitive Assessment for Multiple Sclerosis (BICAMS) and evaluation of self-reported cognitive status using the patient-version of the Multiple Sclerosis Neuropsychological Questionnaire (p-MSNQ). Depression and anxiety were also evaluated using the Back Depression Inventory-version II (BDI-II) and Zung Anxiety Scale. Brain MRI images were acquired and brain volumes estimated. For each patient that was enrolled, we spoke to a caregiver and collected their perception of the patient's CI using the MSNQ- Caregiver version. Results: Ninety-five MS subjects with their caregivers were enrolled. CI was detected in 51 (53.7%) patients. We found a significant correlation (p &lt; 0.001) between BICAMS T scores and lower whole brain (Rho = 0.51), gray matter (Rho = 0.54), cortical gray matter (Rho = 0.51) volumes and lower p-MSNQ (Rho = 0.31), and cg-MSNQ (Rho = 0.41) scores. Multivariate logistic regression showed that p-MSNQ is related to a patient's anxiety to evaluate by Zung Score (p &lt; 0.001) while cg-MSNQ to patient's brain volume (p = 0.01). Conclusion: Our data confirm that neuropsychological evaluation results are related to the perception of CI and brain volume measures and highlight the importance of the caregiver's perception for cognitive assessment of pwMS

Post-graduate medical education in public health: The case of Italy and a call for action

Public health technical expertise is of crucial importance to inform decision makers\u2019 action in the field of health and its broader determinants. Improving education and training of public health professionals for both practice and research is the starting point to strengthen the role of public health so that current health challenges can be efficiently tackled. At the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER) Deans\u2019 & Directors\u2019 2017 Annual Retreat, we presented the structure and management of public health training system in Italy, and we reported recent data on Italian public health specialists\u2019 educational experience, employment opportunities and job satisfaction. Public health training in Italy is implemented in the context of the post-graduate medical education residency programme in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, delivered by 34 University-based Schools of Public Health. We report relatively high employment rates across the county and wide spectrum of career opportunities for young public health specialists. However, job security is low and training expectations only partially met. We call upon other Schools of Public Health to scale up the survey within the broad ASPHER community in a shared and coordinated action of systematically collecting useful data that can inform the development of public health education and training models, their implementation and fruitful interaction with population health, health systems and services