The Italian Implementation of the EU Directives on Procedural Safeguards for Accused Persons in Criminal Proceedings

Questo saggio è stato sviluppato nel corso di un progetto di ricerca di 30 mesi finanziato dalla Commissione europea - CrossJustice (https://site.unibo.it/cross-justice/en), condotto sotto la supervisione dell'Università di Bologna. L'obiettivo del progetto era verificare il livello di attuazione delle sei direttive sui diritti dell'imputato adottate dal 2009 nell'ambito del Programma di Stoccolma. La ricerca ha esaminato criticamente i diritti dell'imputato riconosciuti e tutelati dalla Direttiva 2010/64/UE del 20 ottobre 2010 sul diritto all'interpretazione e alla traduzione; dalla Direttiva 2012/13/UE del 22 maggio 2012 sul diritto all'informazione; la Direttiva 2013/48/UE sul diritto di accesso a un difensore e di informazione di terzi; la Direttiva 2016/343/UE del 9 marzo 2016 sulla presunzione di innocenza e il diritto di presenziare al processo; la Direttiva 2016/800/UE sulle garanzie procedurali per gli imputati minorenni; la Direttiva 2016/1919/UE del 26 ottobre 2016 sul patrocinio a spese dello Stato. I ricercatori coinvolti hanno combinato due diverse metodologie, esaminando la questione sia da una prospettiva tradizionale, condotta da studiosi specializzati in diritto dell'UE e diritto processuale penale nazionale, sia da una nuova analisi computazionale. Nell'ambito di quest'ultimo approccio, la ricerca ha sviluppato una piattaforma di intelligenza artificiale semi-automatizzata, per evidenziare meglio le lacune scoperte dei testi normativi e migliorare l'analisi comparativa tra i sistemi giuridici (https://www.crossjustice.eu/en/index.html#crossjustice-platform)   Il presente contributo si concentra – adottando un metodo tradizionale - sul modo in cui il legislatore italiano ha recepito e attuato le suddette direttive, sia con riferimento alle disposizioni normative sia nell'interpretazione giudiziaria dei vertici del sistema. Infatti, mentre l'acquis dell'UE stabilisce standard minimi comuni in materia di diritti processuali penali, la necessità di promuoverne un'applicazione efficace e coerente rimane particolarmente pressante a causa della forte frammentazione della legislazione nazionale e della relativa giurisprudenza. In termini generali, il quadro che emerge mostra alcuni punti di forza del sistema italiano, con particolare riferimento al diritto al difensore, al diritto all'informazione e alla disclosure (e, in misura meno uniforme, alle regole di esclusione probatoria quando si tratti di tutelare le violazioni delle garanzie difensive). Non mancano tuttavia alcune criticità, spesso legate alla prassi (ad esempio, la necessaria formazione che i difensori degli imputati vulnerabili dovrebbero ricevere, il patrocinio a spese dello Stato, la qualità e l'efficacia del diritto all'interprete e la tradizione degli atti). La presente analisi del sistema italiano, insieme a quella sviluppata per gli altri 10 Stati Membri dell’UE coinvolti nel progetto (Bulgaria, Croazia, Francia, Germania, Paesi Bassi, Polonia, Portogallo, Romania, Spagna, Svezia) ed ai risultati dell’analisi semantica dei testi normativi, fondata su tecniche di Intelligenza Artificiale, ha consentito di sviluppare una ricerca innovativa nei metodi e nei contenuti, che, oltre alla piattaforma Crossjustice, ha trovato recente pubblicazione anche in un volume edito da Brill (Giuseppe Contissa, Giulia Lasagni, Michele Caianiello, Giovanni Sartor (eds.), Effective Protection of the Rights of the Accused in the EU Directives. A Computable Approach to Criminal Procedure Law, 2022)

Effectiveness, Tolerability, and Drug Survival of Risankizumab in a Real-World Setting: A Three-Year Retrospective Multicenter Study—IL PSO (ITALIAN LANDSCAPE PSORIASIS)

Background: Risankizumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody that selectively inhibits interleukin-23. It has been approved for moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis and has shown efficacy and safety in clinical trials and real-world experiences. This study aimed to evaluate the long-term effectiveness, safety, and drug survival of risankizumab in a real-life setting. Materials and Methods: We included patients treated with risankizumab from January 2019 to February 2023. A Psoriasis Area and Severity Index score (PASI) was collected at weeks 0, 16, 28, 52, 104, and 156, when available. The occurrence of any adverse events was recorded at each visit. Results: We enrolled 1047 patients. At week 52, a ≥90% improvement in PASI was observed in 81.44% of patients, with a continuous improvement throughout the study (88.99% and 99.07% at weeks 104 and 156, respectively). After three years of treatment, all patients involving the scalp, palms/soles, and genitalia and 95% of patients with nail psoriasis achieved a complete or almost complete skin clearance. No significant safety findings were observed, and 90.73% of the patients were still on treatment after 36 months. Conclusions: This study supports the long-term effectiveness and safety of risankizumab in a real- world setting, even in patients involving difficult-to-treat areas

Brodalumab for the treatment of plaque psoriasis in a real-life setting: a 3 years multicenter retrospective study—IL PSO (Italian landscape psoriasis)

Introduction: Brodalumab is a monoclonal antibody that targets the subunit A of the interleukin-17A receptor (IL17RA), inhibiting the signaling of various isoforms of the IL-17 family. It has been approved for the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis after being evaluated in three Phase-3 trials. However, long-term data on brodalumab in a real-life setting are still limited

Has COVID-19 Delayed the Diagnosis and Worsened the Presentation of Type 1 Diabetes in Children?

Objective: To evaluate whether the diagnosis of pediatric type 1 diabetes or its acute complications changed during the early phase of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Italy. Research design and methods: This was a cross-sectional, Web-based survey of all Italian pediatric diabetes centers to collect diabetes, diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), and COVID-19 data in patients presenting with new-onset or established type 1 diabetes between 20 February and 14 April in 2019 and 2020. Results: Fifty-three of 68 centers (77.9%) responded. There was a 23% reduction in new diabetes cases in 2020 compared with 2019. Among those newly diagnosed patient who presented in a state of DKA, the proportion with severe DKA was 44.3% in 2020 vs. 36.1% in 2019 (P = 0.03). There were no differences in acute complications. Eight patients with asymptomatic or mild COVID-19 had laboratory-confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic might have altered diabetes presentation and DKA severity. Preparing for any "second wave" requires strategies to educate and reassure parents about timely emergency department attendance for non-COVID-19 symptoms

"Delirium Day": A nationwide point prevalence study of delirium in older hospitalized patients using an easy standardized diagnostic tool

Background: To date, delirium prevalence in adult acute hospital populations has been estimated generally from pooled findings of single-center studies and/or among specific patient populations. Furthermore, the number of participants in these studies has not exceeded a few hundred. To overcome these limitations, we have determined, in a multicenter study, the prevalence of delirium over a single day among a large population of patients admitted to acute and rehabilitation hospital wards in Italy. Methods: This is a point prevalence study (called "Delirium Day") including 1867 older patients (aged 65 years or more) across 108 acute and 12 rehabilitation wards in Italian hospitals. Delirium was assessed on the same day in all patients using the 4AT, a validated and briefly administered tool which does not require training. We also collected data regarding motoric subtypes of delirium, functional and nutritional status, dementia, comorbidity, medications, feeding tubes, peripheral venous and urinary catheters, and physical restraints. Results: The mean sample age was 82.0 ± 7.5 years (58 % female). Overall, 429 patients (22.9 %) had delirium. Hypoactive was the commonest subtype (132/344 patients, 38.5 %), followed by mixed, hyperactive, and nonmotoric delirium. The prevalence was highest in Neurology (28.5 %) and Geriatrics (24.7 %), lowest in Rehabilitation (14.0 %), and intermediate in Orthopedic (20.6 %) and Internal Medicine wards (21.4 %). In a multivariable logistic regression, age (odds ratio [OR] 1.03, 95 % confidence interval [CI] 1.01-1.05), Activities of Daily Living dependence (OR 1.19, 95 % CI 1.12-1.27), dementia (OR 3.25, 95 % CI 2.41-4.38), malnutrition (OR 2.01, 95 % CI 1.29-3.14), and use of antipsychotics (OR 2.03, 95 % CI 1.45-2.82), feeding tubes (OR 2.51, 95 % CI 1.11-5.66), peripheral venous catheters (OR 1.41, 95 % CI 1.06-1.87), urinary catheters (OR 1.73, 95 % CI 1.30-2.29), and physical restraints (OR 1.84, 95 % CI 1.40-2.40) were associated with delirium. Admission to Neurology wards was also associated with delirium (OR 2.00, 95 % CI 1.29-3.14), while admission to other settings was not. Conclusions: Delirium occurred in more than one out of five patients in acute and rehabilitation hospital wards. Prevalence was highest in Neurology and lowest in Rehabilitation divisions. The "Delirium Day" project might become a useful method to assess delirium across hospital settings and a benchmarking platform for future surveys

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements