Psychometric Properties of the Italian Version of the Leader Member Exchange Scale (LMX-7): A Validation Study

For decades, scholars have studied leader–member exchange (LMX) relationships to understand and explain the effects of leadership on follower attitudes and performance outcomes within work settings. One available instrument to measure these aspects is the LMX-7 scale. This measurement has been widely used in empirical studies, but its psychometric properties have been poorly explored. The aim of this study was to test the psychometric characteristics (content, structural and construct validity, and reliability) of the Italian version of the LMX-7 scale and to support its cultural adaptation. We used a cross-sectional multi-center design. The forward–backward translation process was used to develop the Italian version of the scale. The scale was administered through an online survey to 837 nurses and nurse managers working in different settings. The factorial structure was tested using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA and CFA), and reliability was evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha. For the construct validity, we used hypothesis testing and differentiation by known groups. The Italian version of the LMX-7 scale presented one dimension. All the psychometric tests performed confirmed its validity and suggested its usefulness for future research

Rilascio di metalli da protesi d\u2019anca metallo-su-metallo

Le protesi d\u2019anca metallo-su-metallo possono essere causa di un aumento della concentrazione ematica de metalli che costituiscono la protesi, in particolare cromo (Cr) e cobalto (Co). In genere un incremento dei metalli nei liquidi biologici \ue8 osservabile circa tre mesi dopo la sostituzione dell\u2019anca con la nuova protesi, senza ulteriori aumenti ad un anno. Il livello di metalli sembra quindi declinare lentamente nei successivi cinque anni. Qualora la protesi sia ben funzionante, la quota circolante di Cr e Co \ue8 generalmente modesta, mentre l\u2019usura sembra essere il responsabile di un pi\uf9 rilevante incremento, dovuto ad un effetto combinato della corrosione dell\u2019impianto e delle particelle rilasciate. A livello tissutale, il Co si trova in genere allo stato metallico mentre il Cr si trova sotto forma di fosfato [Cr(III)PO4] nel suo stato di ossidazione 3+. Una causa importante di usura e quindi di rilascio di metalli \ue8 la mobilizzazione della protesi. Ulteriori significativi fattori di rischio sembrano essere il sesso femminile e il diametro della testa, maggiore \ue8 il diametro, maggiore \ue8 il rischio di usura. Fattore non favorente sembra invece essere l\u2019attivit\ue0 fisica. Il rischio principale \ue8 la metallosi, ovvero l\u2019eccessiva usura della protesi con infiltrazione di detriti metallici accompagnata da flogosi cronica nei tessuti periprotesici, evento che pu\uf2 essere causa di intossicazione da metalli anche grave. Il presente studio ha preso in esame le concentrazioni ematiche e urinarie di Cr e Co in 30 pazienti portatori di protesi metallo-su-metallo senza segni di usura (19 maschi e 11 femmine, et\ue0 media 61 anni, mediamente 3 anni dopo l\u2019intervento) e di 6 pazienti (4 maschi e 2 femmine, et\ue0 media 54 anni, mediamente 5 anni dopo l\u2019intervento) con protesi recanti chiari segni di usura e metallosi. Nessuno dei 36 pazienti presentava una anamnesi significativa per esposizione lavorativa a metalli pesanti. La determinazione nei liquidi biologici ha dimostrato nei portatori di protesi non usurate una concentrazione dei metalli (media geometrica) solo modicamente aumentata (CoS 0,5 \ub5g/l, CoU 5,7 \ub5g/l, CrS 0,8 \ub5g/l, CrU 3,4 \ub5g/l) rispetto ai valori di riferimento, mentre l\u2019usura \ue8 stata causa di un rilevante aumento della concentrazione sia del Co (CoS 94,6 \ub5g/l, CoU 334,5 \ub5g/l) che del Cr (CrS 57,7 \ub5g/l, CrU 89,4 \ub5g/l). Come dimostrano i risultati, le protesi ben funzionanti non sembrano essere causa di particolari rischi per i pazienti, in accordo con la letteratura, mentre all\u2019usura si associano elevati livelli dei metalli nei liquidi biologici. In caso di metallosi, sono stati descritti casi di polineuropatia legata alla tossicit\ue0 dei metalli. Al momento, i 6 pazienti con usura della protesi non presentano segni e sintomi collegabili ad una intossicazione da metalli, ma l\u2019elevata concentrazione potrebbe essere causa di insorgenza di danni soprattutto renali, neurologici, tiroidei e cardiaci. Le protesi metallo-su-metallo usurate associate a metallosi dovrebbero essere sostituite per prevenire potenziali danni ai pazienti, anche se sono necessari ulteriori studi prospettici per valutare l\u2019effettiva correlazione tra elevate concentrazioni di metalli e conseguenti effetti tossici

Role and skills of the oncology nurse. an observational study

The importance of nursing competence arises from its central role in influencing and determining care outcomes. The employment of adequately educated staff, able to base clinical decisions on the best scientific evidence, is one of the components required for delivering high quality nursing care in the oncological field. The aim of this study is to analyze - through the Nurse Competence Scale - the level of competence of nurses working in oncological settings

CuII and AuIII Complexes with Glycoconjugated Dithiocarbamato Ligands for Potential Applications in Targeted Chemotherapy.

This work is focused on the synthesis, characterization, and preliminary biological evaluation of bio-conjugated AuIII and CuII complexes with the aim of overcoming the well-known side effects of chemotherapy by improving the selective accumulation of an anticancer metal payload in malignant cells. For this purpose, carbohydrates were chosen as targeting agents, exploiting the Warburg effect that accounts for the overexpression of glucose-transporter proteins (in particular GLUTs) in the phospholipid bilayer of most neoplastic cells. We linked the dithiocarbamato moiety to the C1 position of three different monosaccharides: d-glucose, d-galactose, and d-mannose. Altogether, six complexes with a 1:2 metal-to-ligand stoichiometry were synthesized and in\u2005vitro tested as anticancer agents. One of them showed high cytotoxic activity toward the HCT116 colorectal human carcinoma cell line, paving the way to future in\u2005vivo studies aimed at evaluating the role of carbohydrates in the selective delivery of whole molecules into cancerous cells

Adherence to endocrine therapy in women with breast cancer: development and preliminary validation of the A-BET questionnaire

Purpose. To develop an Italian tool that measures the therapy adherence of women with breast cancer undergoing treatment with oral endocrine therapy. Methods A two-phase study was conducted, which followed the guidelines of the European Statistical System for the development and validation of a questionnaire. In the first phase, the questionnaire was developed; in the second phase, a preliminary validation was carried out on patients with breast cancer undergoing treatment with oral hormonal therapies. Results In its final version, the questionnaire presents 6 main items which aim to investigate the level of adherence, the degree of awareness of the nature of the drug taken and the reasons that may influence nonadherence. 82 patients were recruited in the validation study, with an average age of 56.4 years, while for the re-test 40 were selected with an average age of 57.3 years. Content validity reported excellent results. Cronbach's alpha of each item showed a strong degree of correlation. Conclusions. The creation of a tool for measuring adherence to endocrine therapy in breast cancer patients can be a valuable support for healthcare professionals involved in their care. Future studies should be aimed at using A-BET (Adherence – Breast Endocrine Therapy) on larger cohorts of patients in order to verify its validity / reliability more accurately and to be able to generalize the results

CuII and AuIII Complexes with Glycoconjugated Dithiocarbamato Ligands for Potential Applications in Targeted Chemotherapy

This work is focused on the synthesis, characterization, and preliminary biological evaluation of bio-conjugated AuIII and CuII complexes with the aim of overcoming the well-known side effects of chemotherapy by improving the selective accumulation of an anticancer metal payload in malignant cells. For this purpose, carbohydrates were chosen as targeting agents, exploiting the Warburg effect that accounts for the overexpression of glucose-transporter proteins (in particular GLUTs) in the phospholipid bilayer of most neoplastic cells. We linked the dithiocarbamato moiety to the C1 position of three different monosaccharides: d-glucose, d-galactose, and d-mannose. Altogether, six complexes with a 1:2 metal-to-ligand stoichiometry were synthesized and in vitro tested as anticancer agents. One of them showed high cytotoxic activity toward the HCT116 colorectal human carcinoma cell line, paving the way to future in vivo studies aimed at evaluating the role of carbohydrates in the selective delivery of whole molecules into cancerous cells

The efficacy of balneotherapy, mud therapy and spa therapy in patients with osteoarthritis: an overview of reviews

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease considered a leading cause of functional disability. Its treatment is based on a combination of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions, but the role of these latter is still debated. This overview of systematic reviews aimed at evaluating the short-term efficacy of different thermal modalities in patients with osteoarthritis. We searched PubMed, Scopus, CINHAL, Web of Science, ProQuest and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews from inception until October 2020, with no language restrictions. We selected the following outcomes a priori: pain, stiffness and quality of life. Seventeen systematic reviews containing 27 unique relevant studies were included. The quality of the reviews ranged from low to critically low. Substantial variations in terms of interventions studied, comparison groups, population, outcomes and follow-up between the included SRs were found. From a re-analysis of primary data, emerged that balneotherapy was effective in reducing pain and improving stiffness and quality of life, mud therapy significantly reduced pain and stiffness, and spa therapy showed pain relief. However, the evidence supporting the efficacy of different thermal modalities could be seriously flawed due to methodological quality and sample size, to the presence of important treatment variations, and to the high level of heterogeneity and the absence of a double-blind design. There is some encouraging evidence that deserves clinicians' consideration, suggesting that thermal modalities are effective on a short-term basis for treating patients with AO

Synthesis, chemical characterization and cancer cell growth-inhibitory activities of Cu(ii) and Ru(iii) aliphatic and aromatic dithiocarbamato complexes

The present paper is focused on the analysis of the effects mediated by different cyclic dithiocarbamic ligands (DTC) on three classes of antiproliferative coordination compounds, namely the Ru(III) complexes with general formulae [Ru(DTC)3] and [Ru2(DTC)5]Cl, and the neutral Cu(II) derivatives of the type [Cu(DTC)2]. In particular, the authors present the synthesis and characterization of a library of total 23 coordination compounds containing the Ru(III) or Cu(II) biologically-active metal center) and two or more dithiocarbamato (DTC) ligands, derived from cyclic amines (aliphatic or aromatic). Several techniques (elemental analysis, X-ray crystallography, ESI-MS, 1H-NMR spectroscopy, FT-IR and UV-Vis spectrophotometries) were used to characterize the compounds, highlighting different electronic behaviors generated by the substituents within the DTC moiety. Moreover, the synthetized compounds were tested for their stability in order to investigate their antiproliferative activity against 3 human cancer cell lines, namely HeLa, HepG2 and HepG2/SB3. In particular, the last one was chosen for its aggressiveness, due to the upregulation of the anti-apoptotic protein SerpinB3. Finally, the most promising compounds were studied in terms of logP. Overall, the results point out the drug likeness of some derivatives of copper(II) and ruthenium(III)

Neurofibromin deficiency and extracellular matrix cooperate to increase transforming potential through fak-dependent signaling

Plexiform neurofibromas (Pnfs) are benign peripheral nerve sheath tumors that are major features of the human genetic syndrome, neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). Pnfs are derived from Schwann cells (SCs) undergoing loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at the NF1 locus in an NF1+/ 12 milieu and thus are variably lacking in the key Ras-controlling protein, neurofibromin (Nfn). As these SCs are embedded in a dense desmoplastic milieu of stromal cells and abnormal extracellular matrix (ECM), cell\u2013cell cooperativity (CCC) and the molecular microenvironment play essential roles in Pnf progression towards a malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST). The complexity of Pnf biology makes treatment challenging. The only approved drug, the MEK inhibitor Selumetinib, displays a variable and partial therapeutic response. Here, we explored ECM contributions to the growth of cells lacking Nfn. In a 3D in vitro culture, NF1 loss sensitizes cells to signals from a Pnf-mimicking ECM through focal adhesion kinase (FAK) hyperactivation. This hyperactivation correlated with phosphorylation of the downstream effectors, Src, ERK, and AKT, and with colony formation. Expression of the GAP-related domain of Nfn only partially decreased activation of this signaling pathway and only slowed down 3D colony growth of cells lacking Nfn. However, combinatorial treatment with both the FAK inhibitor Defactinib (VS-6063) and Selumetinib (AZD6244) fully suppressed colony growth. These observations pave the way for a new combined therapeutic strategy simultaneously interfering with both intracellular signals and the interplay between the various tumor cells and the ECM