Epidemiology and clinical aspect of mushroom poisonings in South Sardinia: A 10-year retrospective analysis (2011-2021)

Mushroom poisoning is a severe problem of public health, however, information about its epidemiology and management is still limited. This is the first study focused on Sardinia that investigates data about mushroom poisoning describing epidemiology, clinical presentation, seasonality, and the most common involved species. In this retrospective study, we analyzed data recovered from the database of Mycological Inspectorates during a 10-year period (2011-2021). Overall, 164 cases of mushroom poisoning have been identified, with significant peaks in autumn. The highest number of episodes of intoxication were recorded in Cagliari (64), followed by Carbonia (55) and Sanluri (45), although the annual distribution of cases among the provinces varied considerably in the study period. Thanks to the expertise of the Mycological Inspectorate service, the implicated species have been identified in 162 cases (98.78%); 81 cases were caused by toxic species, 60 by edible, and 45 by not edible species. Omphalotus olearius and Agaricus xanthodermus were the most represented toxic species (22% and 18%, respectively); Boletus aereus (18%) was the most frequent edible species, while Boletaceae were the prevalent not edible mushrooms. The data collected in South Sardinia over a period of 10-years demonstrate how a correct and rapid recognition of mushroom poisoning is important to improve the prognosis of patients, however, there are still problems of lack of knowledge, on the part of the population, on the existence of the consultancy services. Because most illnesses from poisonous mushroom ingestion are preventable, increased public awareness about the potential dangers of mushroom poisoning is mandatory

Total serum cholesterol levels and suicide attempts in child and adolescent psychiatric inpatients

Associations between cholesterol and suicidal behavior in adolescent patients have not been explored in depth. In this study, 66 patients consecutively admitted to a psychiatric inpatient unit following attempted suicide were compared with a control group of 54 patients with no history of suicide attempts. The age range of the sample was from 8 to 18 years old. Cholesterol levels were significantly lower in attempted suicide patients than in controls (p < 0.02), supporting the hypothesis that lower cholesterol levels might be associated with suicidal behavior in patients with similar acute phase of their disorder

Cardiovascular disease behavioral risk factors among Latinos by citizenship and documentation status.

BACKGROUND:Studies have observed that recent Latino immigrants tend to have a physical health advantage compared to immigrants who have been in the US for many years or Latinos who are born in the United States. An explanation of this phenomenon is that recent immigrants have positive health behaviors that protect them from chronic disease risk. This study aims to determine if trends in positive cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk behaviors extend to Latino immigrants in California according to citizenship and documentation status. METHODS:We examined CVD behavioral risk factors by citizenship/documentation statuses among Latinos and non-Latino US-born whites in the 2011-2015 waves of the California Health Interview Survey. Adjusted multivariable logistic regressions estimated the odds for CVD behavioral risk factors, and analyses were stratified by sex. RESULTS:In adjusted analyses, using US-born Latinos as the reference group, undocumented Latino immigrants had the lowest odds of current smoking, binge drinking, and frequency of fast food consumption. There were no differences across the groups for fruit/vegetable intake and walking for leisure. Among those with high blood pressure, undocumented immigrants were least likely to be on medication. Undocumented immigrant women had better patterns of CVD behavioral risk factors on some measures compared with other Latino citizenship and documentation groups. CONCLUSIONS:This study observes that the healthy Latino immigrant advantage seems to apply to undocumented female immigrants, but it does not necessarily extend to undocumented male immigrants who had similar behavioral risk profiles to US-born Latinos

ImageNet-Patch: A dataset for benchmarking machine learning robustness against adversarial patches

Adversarial patches are optimized contiguous pixel blocks in an input image that cause a machine-learning model to misclassify it. However, their optimization is computationally demanding, and requires careful hyperparameter tuning, potentially leading to suboptimal robustness evaluations. To overcome these issues, we propose ImageNet-Patch, a dataset to benchmark machine-learning models against adversarial patches. The dataset is built by first optimizing a set of adversarial patches against an ensemble of models, using a state-of-the-art attack that creates transferable patches. The corresponding patches are then randomly rotated and translated, and finally applied to the ImageNet data. We use ImageNet-Patch to benchmark the robustness of 127 models against patch attacks, and also validate the effectiveness of the given patches in the physical domain (i.e., by printing and applying them to real-world objects). We conclude by discussing how our dataset could be used as a benchmark for robustness, and how our methodology can be generalized to other domains. We open source our dataset and evaluation code at https://github.com/pralab/ImageNet-Patch

Differences in dry eye questionnaire symptoms in two different modalities of contact lens wear: silicone-hydrogel in daily wear basis and overnight orthokeratology

Purpose. To compare the ocular surface symptoms and signs in an adult population of silicone-hydrogel (Si-Hy) contact lens (CL) wearers with another modality of CL wear, overnight orthokeratology (OK). Materials and Methods. This was a prospective and comparative study in which 31 myopic subjects were fitted with the same Si-Hy CL and 23 underwent OK treatment for 3 months. Dry eye questionnaire (DEQ) was filled in at the beginning of the study and then after 15 days, 1 month, and 3 months using each CL modality. The tear quality was evaluated with noninvasive tear break-up time. Tear production was measured with Schirmer test. Tear samples were collected with Schirmer strips being frozen to analyze the dinucleotide diadenosine tetraphosphate (Ap4A) concentration with High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Results. After refitting with ortho-k, a reduction in discomfort and dryness symptoms at the end of the day ( < 0.05, 2 ) was observed. No significant changes were observed in Ap4A concentration in any group. Bulbar redness, limbal redness, and conjunctival staining increased significantly in the Si-Hy group ( < 0.05, Kruskal–Wallis test). Conclusion. Discomfort and dryness symptoms at the end of the day are lower in the OK CL group than in the Si-Hy CL group.The authors thank Paragon Vision Science and CooperVision for donating the lenses. This work was partially supported by the Xunta de Galicia by a predoctoral grant of the Plan I2C 2011–2015 and the Spanish SAF2013-44416-R and RETICS RD12/0034/0003. It was also partially supported by Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of projects PTDC/SAU-BEB/098391/2008 and PTDC/SAU-BEB/098392/2008

The Development of the Vulnerability Index (VI) using Principal Component Analysis (PCA)

Climate change elevates the rate of emergence of urban heat islands (UHIs), especially in the tropics. UHIs severely affect human comfort and health. Many studies have suggested that urban areas should be properly mitigated or planned. To cope with this, it is best to present the issue using easy-to-understand approaches to allow for better decision-making, especially during urban planning. Based on the information, adaptations and mitigation strategies can be suggested in order to reduce the impact. Hence, this research was aimed at determining the heat vulnerability index (HVI) of urban areas. This study was conducted in Malaysia in the Klang Valley, a tropical city with a complex urban morphology. Remote sensing techniques were employed to extract and derive the spatial index values for exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. A principal component analysis (PCA) was used to estimate the vulnerability as well as to generate the HVI. The most vulnerable districts were found to be Petaling (1.00), Kuala Lumpur (0.99), and Putrajaya (0.95). Kuala Lumpur had a level of exposure that was high (0.56), a level of sensitivity that was high (0.84), and capacity to adapt that was low (0.54), while Petaling had a high exposure value (0.56), very high sensitivity (1), and high adaptive capacity (0.72). A Pearson’s correlation (r) test also revealed that the variables used were highly correlated. From the preliminary findings, the vulnerability of the population to high temperatures in the Klang Valley can be identified to help develop adaptative plans that are targeted as a response to rapid warming in the future in Malaysia

The Threat of Offensive AI to Organizations

AI has provided us with the ability to automate tasks, extract information from vast amounts of data, and synthesize media that is nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. However, positive tools can also be used for negative purposes. In particular, cyber adversaries can use AI to enhance their attacks and expand their campaigns. Although offensive AI has been discussed in the past, there is a need to analyze and understand the threat in the context of organizations. For example, how does an AI-capable adversary impact the cyber kill chain? Does AI benefit the attacker more than the defender? What are the most significant AI threats facing organizations today and what will be their impact on the future? In this study, we explore the threat of offensive AI on organizations. First, we present the background and discuss how AI changes the adversary’s methods, strategies, goals, and overall attack model. Then, through a literature review, we identify 32 offensive AI capabilities which adversaries can use to enhance their attacks. Finally, through a panel survey spanning industry, government and academia, we rank the AI threats and provide insights on the adversaries

BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in breast/ovarian cancer patients from central Italy

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Melatonin receptors in GtoPdb v.2023.1

Melatonin receptors (nomenclature as agreed by the NC-IUPHAR Subcommittee on Melatonin Receptors [40]) are activated by the endogenous ligands melatonin and clinically used drugs like ramelteon, agomelatine and tasimelteon