Correction to: A "Silent Revolution": school reforms and Italy's educational gender gap in the Liberal Age (1861–1921)

A correction to this paper to make it open access has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11698-021-00227-

Missing girls in Liberal Italy, 1861–1921

By relying on the number of (surviving) boys per hundred girls observed in the population censuses as a cumulative measure of differential mortality during birth, infancy, and childhood, this paper shows that average Italian child sex ratios (aged 0–4) were abnormally high between 1861 and 1921. Our estimations indicate that unexplained excess female mortality resulted in around 2–3 per cent of ‘missing girls’ during this period. Likewise, by constructing a new dataset on child sex ratios at the provincial level during the same period, this article shows that child sex ratios tended to be higher in Southern Italy, a geographical cleavage that became stronger as time went by. Crucially, the results reported here cannot be explained by registration issues because (1) the analysis holds if we focus on the sex ratios of older children (aged 5–9) and (2) these patterns are also clearly visible using death registers. Unexplained excess female mortality early in life disappeared from the 1920s onwards, thus suggesting that either discriminatory practices gradually vanished and/or that they no longer translated into higher mortality rates due to enhanced living standards

Fistula First, Graft on Arterialized Vein Second

n/

identifying the most promising agronomic adaptation strategies for the tomato growing systems in southern italy via simulation modeling

Abstract The main cultivation area of the Italian processing tomato is the Southern Capitanata plain. Here, the hardest agronomic challenge is the optimization of the irrigation water use, which is often inefficiently performed by farmers, who tend to over-irrigate. This could become unsustainable in the next years, given the negative impacts of climatic changes on groundwater availability and heat stress intensification. The aim of the study was to identify the most promising agronomic strategies to optimize tomato yield and water use in Capitanata, through a modeling study relying on an extensive dataset for model calibration and evaluation (22 data sets in 2005–2018). The TOMGRO simulation model was adapted to open-field growing conditions and was coupled with a soil model to reproduce the impact of water stress on yield and fruit quality. The new model, TomGro_field, was applied on the tomato cultivation area in Capitanata at 5 × 5 km spatial resolution using an ensemble of future climatic scenarios, resulting from the combination of four General Circulation Models, two extreme Representative Concentration Pathways and five 10-years time frames (2030–2070). Our results showed an overall negative impact of climate change on tomato yields (average decrease = 5–10%), which could be reversed by i) the implementation of deficit irrigation strategies based on the restitution of 60–70% of the crop evapotranspiration, ii) the adoption of varieties with longer cycle and iii) the anticipation of 1–2 weeks in transplanting dates. The corresponding irrigation amounts applied are around 360 mm, thus reinforcing that a rational water management could be realized. Our study provides agronomic indications to tomato growers and lays the basis for a bio-economic analysis to support policy makers in charge of promoting the sustainability of the tomato growing systems

Rethinking Chronic Kidney Disease in the Aging Population

The process of aging population will inevitably increase age-related comorbidities including chronic kidney disease (CKD). In light of this demographic transition, the lack of an age-adjusted CKD classification may enormously increase the number of new diagnoses of CKD in old subjects with an indolent decline in kidney function. Overdiagnosis of CKD will inevitably lead to important clinical consequences and pronounced negative effects on the health-related quality of life of these patients. Based on these data, an appropriate workup for the diagnosis of CKD is critical in reducing the burden of CKD worldwide. Optimal management of CKD should be based on prevention and reduction of risk factors associated with kidney injury. Once the diagnosis of CKD has been made, an appropriate staging of kidney disease and timely prescriptions of promising nephroprotective drugs (e.g., RAAS, SGLT-2 inhibitors, finerenone) appear crucial to slow down the progression toward end-stage kidney disease (ESKD). The management of elderly, comorbid and frail patients also opens new questions on the appropriate renal replacement therapy for this subset of the population. The non-dialytic management of CKD in old subjects with short life expectancy features as a valid option in patient-centered care programs. Considering the multiple implications of CKD for global public health, this review examines the prevalence, diagnosis and principles of treatment of kidney disease in the aging population

Prevalence, clinical course and outcomes of COVID-19 in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients: a single-center experience

Introduction There are limited data on the effects of COVID-19 on peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. This study aimed to describe the impact of COVID-19 on the PD population. Methods A monocentric retrospective observational study was conducted on 146 consecutive PD patients followed from January 2020 to March 2022 at the University Hospital of Modena, Italy. Results Twenty-seven (18.4%) PD patients experienced 29 episodes of SARS-CoV-2 infection, corresponding to an incidence rate of 0.16 episodes/patient-year. Median age of COVID-19 patients was 60.4 (interquartile range [IQR] 50.2-66.5) years. In unvaccinated patients (n. 9), COVID-19 was always symptomatic and manifested with fever (100%) and cough (77.7%). COVID-19 caused hospital admission of three (33.3%) patients and two (22.2%) died of septic shock. COVID-19 was symptomatic in 83.3% of vaccinated subjects (n.18) and manifested with fever (61.1%) and cough (55.6%). Hospital admission occurred in 27.8% of the subjects but all were discharged home. Median SARS-CoV-2 shedding was 32 and 26 days in the unvaccinated and vaccinated groups, respectively. At the end of the follow-up, COVID-19 triggered the shift from PD to HD in two subjects without affecting the residual renal function of the remaining patients. Overall, COVID-19 caused an excess death of 22.2%. COVID-19 vaccination refusal accounted for only 1.6% in this cohort of patients. Conclusion COVID-19 incident rate was 0.16 episodes/patient-year in the PD population. About one-third of the patients were hospitalized for severe infection. Fatal outcome occurred in two (7.4%) unvaccinated patients. A low vaccination refusal rate was observed in this population

COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Test Screening in Patients on Hemodialysis

Introduction. Patients receiving in-center hemodialysis are extremely vulnerable to COVID-19. It is unclear if routine screening of asymptomatic hemodialysis patients is an effective strategy to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks within the dialysis unit. Methods. We conducted a retrospective analysis of in-center hemodialysis patients who underwent bimonthly COVID-19 rapid antigen test screening from February 15(th) to December 26(th), 2021. Nasal rapid antigen testing was performed in all asymptomatic patients. All rapid antigen-positive tests were confirmed by RT-PCR nasopharyngeal swab. Besides universal rapid antigen screening, RT-PCR testing was conducted in all symptomatic patients and contacts of COVID-19 subjects. Results. Overall, 4079 rapid antigen tests were performed in 277 hemodialysis patients on chronic hemodialysis with a mean age of 68.4 +/- 14.6 years. Thirty-eight (0.9%) rapid antigen tests resulted positive. Only five (13.8%) positive-rapid antigen tests were also positive by RT-PCR testing. During the same period, 219 patients regularly screened by rapid antigen tests bimonthly underwent 442 RT-PCR nasopharyngeal swabs for clinical reasons. RT-PCR testing yielded a positive result in 13 (5.9%) patients. The time elapsed between PCR and the negative-rapid antigen test was 7.7 +/- 4.6 days (range 1.8-13.9 days). At the end of the follow-up, 6.4% of the population on in-center hemodialysis contracted COVID-19, and routine rapid antigen tests detected only 5 out of 18 (27.7%) COVID-19 cases. No outbreaks of COVID-19 were identified within the dialysis unit. Conclusion. Bimonthly rapid antigen screening led to the early diagnosis of COVID-19 in less than one-third of cases. The short incubation period of the new SARS-CoV-2 variants makes bimonthly test screening inadequate for an early diagnosis of COVID-19. More frequent tests are probably necessary to improve the utility of COVID-19 nasal rapid antigen test in patients on hemodialysis

Intradermal Tuberculin Test in Water Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis): Experimental use of Mycobacterial Antigens for the Diagnosis of Bovine Tuberculosis

The study aims to evaluate the potential use of mycobacterial ESAT6 and CFP10 antigens, Early Secretory Proteins (ESP) in the Skin Test used for bovine tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis in Water Buffalo. A pilot study was performed on 21 buffaloes from a TB outbreak and 11 buffaloes from a TB-free herd. Three concentrations of ESAT6-CFP10 (10, 20, and 30 mg) and two of ESP (50 and 100 µg) were inoculated in the Skin Test, along with PPDB, PPDA, and PBS as a negative control. Skin thickness was measured with calipers before the test and every 24 hours for 4 days. Then, to evaluate the specificity of the antigens, a field study was conducted, and 100 buffaloes from a TB-free herd were inoculated using the best antigens concentration derived from the pilot study. In the positive buffaloes, the strongest skin response was to PPDB at 24h, with some subjects becoming inconclusive at 72 and 96 h. A peak response to PPDA at 48 hours was detected, followed by a slight decrease. The response to ESP-100 µg remained high at 24 and 48 h, then decreased, remaining positive at 72 h. In the 100 TB-free buffaloes, the best specificity was observed using ESAT6-CFP10 and ESP. ESP yielded the best results, showing higher reactivity in infected animals and no reactivity in the healthy ones at 72 h. Therefore, ESP could be an excellent candidate for further extensive studies in the buffalo species to improve Skin Test performance

Weekly Rapid Antigen Test Screening for COVID-19 in Patients on Hemodialysis

COVID-19 is a concerning issue among in-center hemodialysis (HD) patients. To prevent COVID-19 diffusion in our HD facility, weekly rapid nasal antigen test screening was performed for all asymptomatic patients on chronic HD. This study aimed to assess the performance of weekly rapid antigen test in detecting SARS-CoV-2 infection among asymptomatic patients receiving HD