Psychological stress in nurses assisting Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis patients: a statistical analysis based on Non-Parametric Combination test

We aimed to evaluate the psychological, emotional and relational burden of nurses who provide assistance to patients affected by Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). A survey was conducted by administering a questionnaire, the “Health Professions Stress and Coping Scale”, which proposes some potentially stressful work situations. The questionnaire was administered to 105 nurses working in hospitals where there is a ward for patients suffering from ALS. We used the "Non-Parametric Combination Test", a multivariate methodology based on permutation solution, widely applicable in various research contexts. Firstly, we investigated the areas of stress; then, the attention was focused on the different coping strategies adopted by respondent nurses within each stress area. The analyses were stratified according to different confounding factors, in order to control their potential effect. The results show the presence of an average level of stress, regardless of gender and educational status. Furthermore, there are significant differences in stress levels in subjects classified according to the ward in which they operate and a positive correlation between higher stress levels and the number of service years was found. In the future this study could also be of interest to nurses working in wards with potentially stressful situations

Visita all'Osservatorio della Biodiversità marina e terrestre della Regione Sicilia - ORBS

Con il taglio inaugurale del nastro il 16 dicembre 2015, prende vita la struttura museale permanente dell'Osservatorio della Biodiversità marina e terrestre della Regione Sicilia che porta lo stesso nome del Progetto di Ricerca "ORBS – Sistema di comunicazione, informazione e diffusione dell'Osservatorio Regionale della Sicilia", intitolata il 21 dicembre 2018 al Dott. Sandro Fiorelli. Ad oggi, la struttura, è operativa presso la Sede Secondaria dell'Istituto per lo studio degli impatti Antropici e Sostenibilità in ambiente marino del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (IAS – CNR) di Capo Granitola. Il progetto ORBS, finanziato da Regione Siciliana - Assessorato alla Cooperazione, Commercio, Artigianato e Pesca - Dipartimento Pesca, con periodo di attività 2013 - 2015, si è concluso proprio con la realizzazione della struttura museale; l'Osservatorio è stato istituito dall'Assessorato del Territorio e dell'Ambiente della Regione Siciliana nell'ambito di un accordo quadro con ARPA, ISPRA e CNR. Grazie al progetto ORBS, docenti e allievi dell'Accademia di Belle Arti di Palermo e il personale CNR – IAS (ex IAMC) S. S. di Capo Granitola, hanno collaborato sinergicamente permettendo di realizzare delle azioni didattiche e creative di valore scientifico espresse con straordinaria forza e bellezza. Ricercatori e professori si sono confrontati al fine di combinare le proprie competenze riuscendo nel progetto ambizioso di coinvolgere e fondere i diversi ambiti scientifici sensibilizzando gli artisti ai temi della Biodiversità. Le opere prodotte, corredate da schede scientifiche, hanno oltre al valore artistico un aggiunto valore didattico. L'apertura della sezione espositiva dedicata alla diffusione e alla comunicazione della biodiversità rappresenta da un lato l'importante tappa conclusiva del progetto, dall'altro l'inizio di un percorso mirato alla diffusione della biodiversità verso il mondo giovanile, le scuole e per tutto il territorio. Questa strepitosa collaborazione "CNR – Accademia di Belle Arti di Palermo" conferma l'importanza e l'opportunità di unire arte e scienza per esaltare la percezione della ricerca scientifica da parte della comunità. La divulgazione della scienza è un'attività complessa e sicuramente necessita di competenze e attitudini multidisciplinari oltreché di motivazione ed entusiasmo. La comunicazione delle tematiche scientifiche, di per sé ardua nella traduzione al grande pubblico, grazie alla forza esplicativa dell'arte, diviene opportunità di riflessione, osservazione, confronto per le comunità di visitatori. Il coordinamento delle visite delle scuole di ogni ordine e grado, Enti Pubblici, Comunità Scientifica, Cariche Istituzionali, Delegazioni di Politici Italiani e Stranieri, Associazioni Culturali, Associazioni No-Profit di Volontariato, Associazioni di Promozione Sociale, Organizzazioni di Volontariato, Onlus, pubblico in generale, presso ORBS, è affidato al qualificato personale (tecnici, tecnologi e ricercatori) dell'IAS – CNR S. S. di Capo Granitola, che gestisce in prima persona i visitatori nel percorso didattico e promuove il valore della divulgazione scientifica perseguendo la terza missione degli Enti di Ricerca, attraverso l'applicazione diretta, la valorizzazione e l'impiego della conoscenza

Overview and Recent Advances in Conjoint Analysis for Customer Satisfaction Measures

EnIn the customer satisfaction evaluation a great importance is assumed by Conjoint Analysis. It can be applied in any area of business and science, in which it is important to measure people’s perceptions or judgments. It allows the individualization of a possible combinations subset for product features to be used in order to determine the relative importance of each feature in the purchasing decision. Purpose of this paper is to furnish an overview on recent advances in Conjoint Analysis for customer satisfaction evaluation, with reference to two methodological approaches, such as permutation tests and textual analysis. In particular, permutation tests represent a robust method because they don’t imply distributive hypothesis on the examined variables and, consequently, are very flexible and adequate to real applicative context. Moreover, in the analysis of the preference structure, recent contributes concerning the Conjoint Analysis aim to improve the description of preferences and behaviors by means of textual information

Bonferroni-Holm and Permutation tests to compare medical data: methodological and applicative issues

BACKGROUND Statistical methodology is a powerful tool in the health research; however, there is wide accord that statistical methodologies are not usually used properly. In particular when multiple comparisons are needed, it is necessary to check the rate of false positive results and the potential inflation of type I errors. In this case, permutation testing methods are useful to check the simultaneous significance level and identify the most significant factors. METHODS In this paper an application of permutation tests, in the medical context of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, is performed. The main goal is to assess the existence of significant differences between Crohn's Disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC). The Sequentially Rejective Multiple Test (Bonferroni-Holm procedure) is used to find which of the partial tests are effectively significant and solve the problem of the multiplicity control. RESULTS Applying Non-Parametric Combination (NPC) Test for partial and combined tests we conclude that Crohn's Disease patients and Ulcerative Colitis patients differ between them for most examined variables. UC patients compared with the CD patients, have a higher diagnosis age, not show smoking status, proportion of patients treated with immunosuppressants or with biological drugs is lower than the CD patients, even if the duration of such therapies is longer. CD patients have a higher rate of re-hospitalization. Diabetes is more present in the sub-population of UC patients. Analyzing the Charlson score we can highlight that UC patients have a more severe clinical situation than CD patients. Finally, CD patients are more frequently subject to surgery compared to UC. Appling of the Bonferroni Holm procedure, which provided adjusted p-values, we note that only nine of the examined variables are statistically significant: Smoking habit, Immunosuppressive therapy, Surgery, Biological Drug, Diabetes, Adverse Events, Re-hospitalization, Gender and Duration of Immunosoppressive Therapy. Therefore, we can conclude that these are the specific variables that can discriminate effectively the Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis groups. CONCLUSIONS We identified significant variables that discriminate the two groups, satisfying the multiplicity problem, in fact we can affirm that Smoking habit, Immunosuppressive therapy, Surgery, Biological Drug, Diabetes, Adverse Events, Hospitalization, Gender and Duration of Immunosoppressive Therapy are the effectively significant variables

The efficacy of minocycline in inflammatory dermatoses: a case of prurigo pigmentosa of prepubescent onset in Western world

We present a 21-year-old Italian girl with an 8-year history of missed diagnosed prurigo pigmentosa (PP) successfully treated with short monotherapy with minocycline. PP is an inflammatory disease characterized by recurrent pruritic erythematous papules followed by reticular hyperpigmentation usually located on the trunk. About 300 cases of PP have been described mainly in Japan, whereas only few cases have been reported in Italy. This report shows that minocycline is rapidly effective probably through its ability to scavenge reactive oxygen species and to inhibit the chemotaxis and neutrophil function. Other than its ethnic rarity, this case is very interesting because it is the third case of PP in Caucasian patient with prepubescent onset

Bonferroni-Holm and permutation tests to compare health data: methodological and applicative issues

Abstract Background Statistical methodology is a powerful tool in the health research; however, there is wide accord that statistical methodologies are not usually used properly. In particular when multiple comparisons are needed, it is necessary to check the rate of false positive results and the potential inflation of type I errors. In this case, permutation testing methods are useful to check the simultaneous significance level and identify the most significant factors. Methods In this paper an application of permutation tests, in the medical context of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, is performed. The main goal is to assess the existence of significant differences between Crohn’s Disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC). The Sequentially Rejective Multiple Test (Bonferroni-Holm procedure) is used to find which of the partial tests are effectively significant and solve the problem of the multiplicity control. Results Applying Non-Parametric Combination (NPC) Test for partial and combined tests we conclude that Crohn’s Disease patients and Ulcerative Colitis patients differ between them for most examined variables. UC patients compared with the CD patients, have a higher diagnosis age, not show smoking status, proportion of patients treated with immunosuppressants or with biological drugs is lower than the CD patients, even if the duration of such therapies is longer. CD patients have a higher rate of re-hospitalization. Diabetes is more present in the sub-population of UC patients. Analyzing the Charlson score we can highlight that UC patients have a more severe clinical situation than CD patients. Finally, CD patients are more frequently subject to surgery compared to UC. Appling of the Bonferroni Holm procedure, which provided adjusted p-values, we note that only nine of the examined variables are statistically significant: Smoking habit, Immunosuppressive therapy, Surgery, Biological Drug, Diabetes, Adverse Events, Re-hospitalization, Gender and Duration of Immunosoppressive Therapy. Therefore, we can conclude that these are the specific variables that can discriminate effectively the Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis groups. Conclusions We identified significant variables that discriminate the two groups, satisfying the multiplicity problem, in fact we can affirm that Smoking habit, Immunosuppressive therapy, Surgery, Biological Drug, Diabetes, Adverse Events, Hospitalization, Gender and Duration of Immunosoppressive Therapy are the effectively significant variables

A Cumulative Proportional Odds Model to Analyze the Influence of Mass Media on Teenagers in Messina

The media are constantly evolving at a breakneck pace and mainly young people, with their flexibility of mind and their continuous curiosity, can better understand the characteristics and potential of such advances. The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between teenagers and media, in order to try to better understand the habits and to conduct analysis on social interactions with young people. In order to evaluate the influence of mass media in the life of the young people, the Statisticians of Messina University decided to perform a statistical survey to evaluate the influence of the media in the life of Messina’s teenagers. A questionnaire entitled "Perceptions of the influence exerted by mass media" was administered in some schools. From the methodological point of view, three statistical models were estimated in order to formalize the dependence of the mass media influence by the kind of TV programs, the time spent on TV viewing and computer use and the kind of most used social networks. Since the mass media influence is an ordinal variable expressed by four ordered categories (1 = nothing; 2 = low; 3 = average; 4 = high) we used the Cumulative Proportional Odds Model to formalize the dependence by the potential predictors

SYNTHESIS AND EVALUATION OF CURCUMIN ANALOGUES AS NEURO-PROTECTIVE AGENTS FOR THE ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE

The Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of senile dementia.1 The most important role in AD is played by the aggregation process of beta-amyloid peptide (Aß), responsible for the cytotoxic effects.2 In this context, the purpose of this study was to synthesize new dicarbonyl compounds 1 structurally related to curcumin3, with anti-aggregation activity against Aß.Parallel studies involve the synthesis of heterocyclic-based curcumin-like molecules that are currently under investigation by means of in silico protocols in order to rationalize the ligand-biological target interactions

Association Between Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in the Cyclooxygenase-2, Tumor Necrosis Factor-a, and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-A Genes, and Susceptibility to Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A), and tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a) are mediators of inflammation and angiogenesis; all of them are produced in liver cirrhosis (LC) and in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). It was proposed that there is an association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and HCC. These allelic variants influence the transcriptional activity of these genes, and therefore the proteins levels. The VEGF-A pathway is a potential therapeutic target in HCC, and several antiangiogenic agents have entered clinical trials in HCC. We evaluated the frequency of SNPs of COX-2, TNF-a, and VEGF-A genes in patients with HCC versus LC patients and a control group. The aim of this article was to verify the correlation between the allelic variations and the risk of developing HCC. The study included 96 HCC, 79 LC patients, and 162 healthy subjects. The evaluation of SNPs was performed by the restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLPPCR) method. The SNPs analyzed were: 1195G>A of the COX-2 gene, 308G>A of the TNF-a gene, and +936C>T of the VEGF-A gene. Chi-square and Fisher exact tests were used for statistical analysis. Our results confirm that carriers with the C allele in the VEGF-A gene are more frequent in HCC versus LC ( p¼0.039), suggesting that this SNP may predispose to the development of HCC