Patients with paediatric-onset multiple sclerosis are at higher risk of cognitive impairment in adulthood: an Italian collaborative study

Background: Patients with paediatric-onset multiple sclerosis (POMS) could be at an increased risk for cognitive impairment (CI), given the potential harmful effects of disease activity in neurodevelopment. However, there is scarce information on their long-term cognitive outcomes. Objective: To compare the prevalence and profile of CI between adults with a history of POMS and those with classic, adult-onset multiple sclerosis (AOMS). Methods: Cognitive performance was assessed through the Brief Repeatable Battery (BRB) and the Stroop Test in consecutive patients referred to six Italian MS centres. CI was defined as impairment in ⩾2 cognitive domains. Results: In all, 119 patients with POMS and 712 with AOMS were included in this analysis. The prevalence of CI was 48.0% in AOMS, 44.5% in POMS; with similar neuropsychological profile between the two groups. However, when adjusting for current age, we found a significantly increased risk for CI (odds ratio (OR) = 1.71; p = 0.02) and for impairment in information processing speed (OR = 1.86; p < 0.01) in patients with POMS. A higher Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) was also identified in POMS (p = 0.03) compared with AOMS patients.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: This study was in part financed through an FISM (Italian Federation of Multiple Sclerosis) research grant

La “familizzazione” dell’impresa: alcune riflessioni sul familismo imprenditoriale in Brianza nella crisi economica attuale

Drawing on a ethnographic research in an area characterized by a dense network of small family-run firms this article looks at the transformation of such enterprises and at their inner relations. It argues that family-run firms are a special kind of organization of production as family (non-commodified) labour and commodified labour are interwoven. Familistic relations, which permeates the enterprise and creates the basic conditions for its formation and functioning, is termed entrepreneurial familism. It sets the organizational structure of the firm and defines the strategies of the transmission of capital adopted by the entrepreneurs. The leader of a small family firm may decide to include or to exclude some kin members from the process of intergenerational succession in order to secure corporate earnings and good performance in the upcoming future. Yet, the choice of share redistribution and ultimately the planning of succession may be a highly contested business decision within the kin group. This form of unequal transmission of capital, based on gender, may leave painful scars within the family, undermining or even destroying personal relationships and kinship solidarity.

Il passato, il presente e il futuro di un distretto industriale. Riflessioni su un campo di ricerca incerto.

The current epoch is characterised by a series of critical events that have upset fieldwork research and continue to affect it. The industrial district of the Brianza has always proved to be resilient and capable of overcoming market turbulences, but the rapid sequence of critical events in an industrial context already exposed to other frailties is producing further uncertainty and liminality. The researcher is likewise facing his own uncertainties. The time lag between the observation of the fast changing situation and the writing moment which, occurring necessarily after the observation period, seems to be unable to keep up with the shifting reality.  Thus, both interlocutors and researcher are seeking new conceptual inventories in their own ways to understand the present and imagine the future in a context of prolonged liminality