Micotossine: prevenire è molto, molto meglio che curare

Food contamination with fungal secondary metabolites has been a major limit for population wellness and development in the past. Although today social protection against this plague has been established in most countries, there are still many areas in the world where mycotoxin contamination causes illness and even death, due to the lack of healthy conditions for the storage of commodities. Information and knowledge are the main weapons available to contrast the danger of food contamination by mycotoxins. In several instances, information about the severity of the issue alone would have been effective in preventing cases of acute intoxications. Prevention is the winning strategy not only at the level of the end consumer, but also as far as the production is concerned. Thanks to the advances in the understanding of fungal epidemiology and mycotoxin synthesis, strategies for the prevention or at least for the limitation of mycotoxin contaminations have been developed in recent years. As far as cereal production in Italy is concerned, proper storage conditions are now widely adopted, and protocols for good practice in cultivation are being followed by an increasing number of producers. In addition, rapid methods for the early detection of contaminants and quality assessment have been developed and, when introduced in the routine field operation, may lead to substantial improvements of product quality

Brivaracetam in treating epileptic encephalopathy and refractory focal epilepsies in patients under 14 years of age.

Objectives: To analyze the efficacy and safety of Brivaracetam in pediatric patients with epileptic encephalopathy or unresponsive focal epilepsy. Materials & Methods: This retrospective study was performed on 8 pediatric patients with EE or unresponsive focal epilepsy. Inclusion criteria: (1) 14 years or younger, (2) history of refractory epilepsy, (3) at least 1 month of continuous therapy with BRV, and (4) at least 6 months of follow-up. Exclusion criteria: (1) variation of concomitant antiepileptic drugs during the previous and/or subsequent 4 weeks of the introduction of BRV, (2) levetiracetam in therapy, (3) an epilepsy secondary to a progressive cerebral disease, tumor, or any other progressive neurodegenerative diseases, and (4) a status epilepticus in the month before screening or during the baseline period. The efficacy of BRV was defined as ≥50% of seizure frequency reduction at the end of the follow-up compared to baseline. Results: All patients showed ≥50% seizure frequency reduction, of which 37.5% were seizure-free, 25% had a frequency reduction of ≥75% and 37.5% ≥ 50%. All patients with an epilepsy onset >12 months and duration of the epilepsy ≤6 years were seizure-free. The maximum effect was achieved at 2 mg/kg/day. Focal seizures showed a better response than epileptic encephalopathy. A remarkably positive effect of the Brivaracetam in patients with encephalopathy related to status epilepticus during sleep was noted. No relevant adverse events were noted. Conclusion: Brivaracetam was an effective and well-tolerated treatment in pediatric patients with epileptic encephalopathy or unresponsive focal epilepsy, especially when the epilepsy onset was >12 months and the epilepsy duration ≤6 years. The overall effect was not dose dependent. Brivaracetam could have an indication in encephalopathy related to status epilepticus during sleep

Concept Tagging for Natural Language Understanding:Two Decadelong Algorithm Development

Concept tagging is a type of structured learning needed for natural language understanding (NLU) systems. In this task, meaning labels from a domain ontology are assigned to word sequences. In this paper, we review the algorithms developed over the last twenty five years. We perform a comparative evaluation of generative, discriminative and deep learning methods on two public datasets. We report on the statistical variability performance measurements. The third contribution is the release of a repository of the algorithms, datasets and recipes for NLU evaluation.L’annotazione automatica dei concetti è un tipo di apprendimento strutturato necessario per i sistemi di comprensione del linguaggio natural (NLU). In questo processo le etichette di un’ontologia di dominio sono assegnate a sequenze di parole. In questo articolo esaminiamo gli algoritmi sviluppati negli ultimi venticinque anni. Eseguiamo una valutazione comparativa dei metodi di apprendimento generativo, discriminatorio e approfondito su due set di dati pubblici. Il secondo contributo è un’analisi della variabilitá delle misure di valutazione. Il terzo contributo è il rilascio di un archivio degli algoritmi, dei sets di dati e delle ricette per la valutazione dell’NLU

Dark Chocolate Intake Positively Modulates Redox Status and Markers of Muscular Damage in Elite Football Athletes: A Randomized Controlled Study

Intensive physical exercise may cause increase oxidative stress and muscular injury in elite football athletes. The aim of this study was to exploit the effect of cocoa polyphenols on oxidative stress and muscular injuries induced by intensive physical exercise in elite football players. Oxidant/antioxidant status and markers of muscle damage were evaluated in 24 elite football players and 15 controls. Furthermore, the 24 elite football players were randomly assigned to either a dark chocolate (>85% cocoa) intake (n = 12) or a control group (n = 12) for 30 days in a randomized controlled trial. Oxidative stress, antioxidant status, and muscle damage were assessed at baseline and after 30 days of chocolate intake. Compared to controls, elite football players showed lower antioxidant power and higher oxidative stress paralleled by an increase in muscle damage markers. After 30 days of dark chocolate intake, an increased antioxidant power was found in elite athletes assuming dark chocolate. Moreover, a significant reduction in muscle damage markers (CK and LDH, p < 0.001) was observed. In the control group, no changes were observed with the exception of an increase of sNox2-dp, H2O2, and myoglobin. A simple linear regression analysis showed that sNox2-dp was associated with a significant increase in muscle damage biomarker release (p = 0.001). An in vitro study also confirmed that polyphenol extracts significantly decreased oxidative stress in murine myoblast cell line C2C12-derived. These results indicate that polyphenol-rich nutrient supplementation by means of dark chocolate positively modulates redox status and reduced exercise-induced muscular injury biomarkers in elite football athletes. This trial is registered with NCT03288623

Diagnostic and Therapeutic Approach to Children and Adolescents with Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSA): Recommendations in Emilia-Romagna Region, Italy

Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSA) in paediatrics is a rather frequent pathology caused by pathophysiological alterations leading to partial and prolonged obstruction (hypoventilation) and/or intermittent partial (hypopnoea) or complete (apnoea) obstruction of the upper airways. Paediatric OSA is characterised by daytime and night-time symptoms. Unfortunately, there are few data on shared diagnostic-therapeutic pathways that address OSA with a multidisciplinary approach in paediatric age. This document summarizes recommendations from the Emilia-Romagna Region, Italy, developed in order to provide the most appropriate tools for a multidisciplinary approach in the diagnosis, treatment and care of paediatric patients with OSA. The multidisciplinary group of experts distinguished two different 'step' pathways, depending on the age group considered (i.e., under or over two years). In most cases, these pathways can be carried out by the primary care paediatrician, who represents the first filter for approaching the problem. For this reason, it is essential that the primary care paediatrician receives adequate training on how to formulate the diagnostic suspicion of OSA and on what criteria to use to select patients to be sent to the hospital centre. The relationship between the paediatrician of the patient and her/his parents must see a synergy of behaviour between the various players in order to avoid uncertainty about the diagnostic and therapeutic decisions as well as the follow-up phase. The definition and evaluation of the organizational process and outcome indicators of the developed flow-chart, and the impact of its implementation will remain fundamental

Low-Intensity Whole-Body Vibration: A Useful Adjuvant in Managing Obesity? A Pilot Study

The use of whole-body vibration (WBV) for therapeutic purposes is far from being stan- dardized and an empirical foundation for reporting guidelines for human WBV studies has only very recently been published. Controversies about safety and therapeutic dosage still exist. The present study aimed to investigate the metabolic and mechanical effects of low-intensity WBV according to the ISO 2631 norm on subjects with obesity. Forty-one obese subjects (BMI ≥35 kg/m2) were recruited to participate in a 3-week multidisciplinary inpatient rehabilitation program including fitness training and WBV training. During WBV the posture was monitored with an optoelectronic system with six infrared cameras (Vicon, Vicon Motion System, Oxford, UK). The primary endpoints were: variation in body composition, factors of metabolic syndrome, functional activity (sit-to-stand and 6-min walking test), muscle strength, and quality of life. The secondary endpoints were: mod- ification of irisin, testosterone, growth hormone, IGF1 levels. We observed significant changes in salivary irisin levels, Group 2 (p < 0.01) as compared to the control group, while muscle strength, function, and other metabolic and hormonal factors did not change after a 3-week low-intensity WBV training with respect to the control group. Future studies are needed to further investigate the potential metabolic effect of low-intensity WBV in managing weight

Low incidence but poor prognosis of complicated coeliac disease: A retrospective multicentre study.

Abstract BACKGROUND: Coeliac disease is a chronic enteropathy characterized by an increased mortality caused by its complications, mainly refractory coeliac disease, small bowel carcinoma and abdominal lymphoma. Aim of the study was to study the epidemiology of complications in patients with coeliac disease. METHODS: Retrospective multicenter case-control study based on collection of clinical and laboratory data. The incidence of complicated coeliac disease was studied among coeliac patients directly diagnosed in four Italian centres. Patients referred to these centres after a diagnosis of coeliac disease and/or complicated coeliac disease in other hospitals were therefore excluded. RESULTS: Between 1/1999 and 10/2011, 1840 adult coeliac patients were followed up for 7364.3 person-years. Fourteen developed complications. Since five patients died, at the end of the observation period (10/2011), the prevalence of complicated coeliac disease was 9/1835 (1/204, 0.49%, 95% CI 0.2-0.9%). The annual incidence of complicated coeliac disease in the study period was 14/7364 (0.2%, 95% CI 0.1-0.31%). Although complications tend to occur soon after the diagnosis of coeliac disease, Kaplan-Meier curve analysis showed that they can actually occur at any time after the diagnosis of coeliac disease. CONCLUSIONS: Complications of coeliac disease in our cohort were quite rare, though characterised by a very high mortality