Discursive chains: How prison becomes real and chains identity movements for a sex offender

Detainees enact a "self" that is faced with the prejudices and stereotypes of the crime for which that detainee was convicted. Of all inmates, sex offenders face the greatest risk of receiving social condemnation alongside their prison sentence. This empirical study worked with 32 male sex offenders over 18 years old that were housed in the "protected" unit of the Due Palazzi. The following analysis explores how these men are required to manage their "self," hetero-narrations, perception of everyday interactions in the protected unit, and conceptions about the rehabilitation path. Moreover, the detainees' view on the prison's strategic opportunities for promoting effective change in their condition and identity are also examined. Discourse analysis applied to an open answer questionnaire showed that, rather than facing the stigma assigned to them, the detainees tend to minimize the importance of storytelling and construct alternative biographies to share with other inmates. Managing narratives allows the sex offenders to distance themselves from the perceived threats of living with other detainees; however, it also prevents the re-signification of their offenses. As such, the rules of "secrecy" must be considered by both qualitative researchers who conduct studies in prisons and prison administrators who plan the housing and treatment of sex offenders

Adjuvants and alternative routes of administration towards the development of the ideal influenza vaccine.

Vaccination is universally considered as the principal measure for the control of influenza, which represents a significant burden worldwide, both from a health-care and a socio-economic viewpoint. Conventional non-adjuvanted trivalent influenza vaccines (TIVs) have been recognized as having some deficiencies, such as suboptimal immunogenicity particularly in the elderly, in patients with severe chronic diseases and immunocompromized, indeed, those groups of the population at higher risk of developing severe complications following influenza infection, when compared to healthy adults. Moreover, the protection offered by conventional vaccines may be reduced by periodic antigenic drifts, resulting in a mismatch between the circulating and vaccinal viral strains. Another gap regarding currently available vaccines is related to the egg-based manufacturing system for their production: not only the length of time involved with the latter but also the limited capacity of this platform technology represent a major limitation for the active prevention of influenza, which is particularly important in the case of a new pandemic strain. New technologies used in vaccine composition, administration and manufacture have led to major advances during the last few years, and clinical researchers have continued to work hard, investigating several different strategies to improve the performance of influenza vaccines: namely, the addition of different adjuvants (i.e., MF59- and AS03-vaccines, virosomal formulations), the use of alternative routes of administration or manufacture (i.e., intradermal, nasal and oral vaccines and cell culture- and reverse genetic-based vaccines) or of high doses of antigen, and the development of DNA-vaccines, or the use of conserved viral epitopes (i.e., the extracellular portion of the M2 protein, the nucleoprotein and some domains of the hemagglutinin), in the attempt to produce a "universal target" antigen vaccine. The knowledge acquired represents a fundamental challenge for the control of influenza. An overview of the most recent and interesting results, some of which gained from our own research experience, particularly concerning two successful approaches, of those outlined above, namely the use of: (i) the oil-in-water MF59-adjuvant, and (ii) the intradermal (ID) route for vaccine administration, through a novel microinjection system, will be reported and discussed, together with the possible implications and perspectives to optimize immunization policies against influenza in the near future

Survival and death causes in 251 systemic sclerosis patients from a single Italian center

Objective: To investigate survival in Italian systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients from a tertiary center, reporting death causes. Materials and methods: We analyzed the charts of 251 SSc patients prospectively enrolled in our Rheumatology Unit from 2000 to 2008. Baseline characteristics were recorded. In 2008 the vital status and the causes of death were assessed. Overall and subgroup survival were analyzed by the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test. Results: In 2008, 82% of patients were alive, 8% were known to have died and 10% were lost to follow-up. Overall 5- and 8-year survival were 94.8% and 77.1%, respectively. Patients with an age greater than the median value of the cohort (χ2=4.4; p=0.036), diffuse cutaneous SSc (χ2=3.9; p=0.048), digital ulcers (χ2=6; p=0.015), articular (χ2=5.3; p=0.021), lung (χ2=5.6; p=0.018) and heart involvement (χ2=9.3; p=0.002) had a poorer survival than patients without these features. The majority of SSc-related deaths (60%) were secondary to interstitial lung disease and heart involvement (both 33.3%); 50% of non-SSc-related deaths were due to cancer. Conclusions: Our study reports an improvement in survival of Italian SSc patients during the last decade with respect to the previous ones. Moreover, a reduction in deaths from renal involvement and an increase in deaths from interstitial lung disease were recorded in Italian SSc patients. Our data are consistent with those from recent survival studies carried out on SSc patients from other geographic areas

Young People’s Narratives of Hearing Voices: Systemic Influences and Conceptual Challenges

Despite the prevalence of voice hearing in childhood and adolescence, little qualitative research has been undertaken with young people directly to advance phenomenological and etiological insights into their experiences and interpretations. Consequently, the researchers sought demographic, contextual and qualitative data from 74 young people from eleven countries, aged 13-18 years (28%=M; 61%=F; 21%=TGNB), who self-identified as hearing voices. A Foucauldian-informed Narrative Analysis yielded four analytic chapters, offering novel perspectives into individual, relational, systemic and cultural interpretative narratives surrounding multisensory and multi-self voice hearing. Overall, young people reported heterogenous experiences of voice hearing and associated sensory experiences and most participants reported voice hearing beginning between ages eight and eleven. Further, the emotions felt by the child, as well as reactions displayed by people around the child in relation to the voices, influenced voice-related distress and the nature of the voices in a triadic relationship. A continuum of multisensory features of voice content, nature and relational significance is tentatively proposed to capture the breadth and depth of voice hearing for adolescents to offer a possible framework for future study and intervention design. Specifically, participants described voice-related distress could be exacerbated by observed anxiety or internalized stigma about voice hearing, social isolation, and attribution to illness. These findings suggest we may need to reconsider how the experience of hearing voices in childhood influences their relationships and how relationships influence the voice hearing experience. Further, young people seem to have a broad understanding of what the term ‘hearing voices’ means, which could inform how researchers and practitioners work with this group of young people. Finally, participants described benefitting from multisensory coping strategies, such as imagery and meditation, which could offer important considerations for tailoring therapeutic interventions for adolescent voice-hearers

Low-dose oral imatinib in the treatment of systemic sclerosis interstitial lung disease unresponsive to cyclophosphamide: a phase II pilot study

Introduction: Pulmonary involvement represents a major cause of death of systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients. Recent data suggest that tyrosine kinase inhibitors, such as imatinib, may be a therapeutic option for SSc patients. However, preliminary published clinical trials were inconclusive about imatinib efficacy and showed side effects. The purpose of this study was to verify efficacy and tolerability of low-dose imatinib on interstitial lung disease in a cohort of SSc patients unresponsive to cyclophosphamide therapy.Methods: Thirty consecutive SSc patients with active pulmonary involvement, unresponsive to cyclophosphamide, were treated with imatinib 200 mg/day for 6 months followed by a 6-month follow-up. A "good response" was defined as an increase of forced vital capacity (FVC) by more of 15% and/or increase of diffusing capacity of carbon monoxide (DLCO) > 15% and PaO2 > 90% of initial value and high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT)-scan pattern unchanged or improved.Results: Twenty-six patients completed the study. Three patients died and one patient was lost to follow-up. Four patients (15.32%) had a good response, 7 worsened and 15 had a stabilized lung disease. Overall, 19 (73.07%) patients had an improved or stabilized lung disease. After a 6-month follow-up, 12 (54.5%) of the 22 patients showed an improved or stabilized lung disease.Conclusions: Lung function was stabilized in a large proportion of patients unresponsive to cyclophosphamide therapy and a beneficial outcome emerged from the analysis of HRCT lung scans. There was no significant improvement of skin involvement, and the low dose was well tolerated. These data provide useful suggestions to design future randomized clinical trials for SSc therapeutics

Update of EULAR recommendations for the treatment of systemic sclerosis

The aim was to update the 2009 European League against Rheumatism (EULAR) recommendations for the treatment of systemic sclerosis (SSc), with attention to new therapeutic questions. Update of the previous treatment recommendations was performed according to EULAR standard operating procedures. The task force consisted of 32 SSc clinical experts from Europe and the USA, 2 patients nominated by the pan-European patient association for SSc (Federation of European Scleroderma Associations (FESCA)), a clinical epidemiologist and 2 research fellows. All centres from the EULAR Scleroderma Trials and Research group were invited to submit and select clinical questions concerning SSc treatment using a Delphi approach. Accordingly, 46 clinical questions addressing 26 different interventions were selected for systematic literature review. The new recommendations were based on the available evidence and developed in a consensus meeting with clinical experts and patients. The procedure resulted in 16 recommendations being developed (instead of 14 in 2009) that address treatment of several SSc-related organ complications: Raynaud's phenomenon (RP), digital ulcers (DUs), pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), skin and lung disease, scleroderma renal crisis and gastrointestinal involvement. Compared with the 2009 recommendations, the 2016 recommendations include phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE-5) inhibitors for the treatment of SSc-related RP and DUs, riociguat, new aspects for endothelin receptor antagonists, prostacyclin analogues and PDE-5 inhibitors for SSc-related PAH. New recommendations regarding the use of fluoxetine for SSc-related RP and haematopoietic stem cell transplantation for selected patients with rapidly progressive SSc were also added. In addition, several comments regarding other treatments addressed in clinical questions and suggestions for the SSc research agenda were formulated. These updated data-derived and consensus-derived recommendations will help rheumatologists to manage patients with SSc in an evidence-based way. These recommendations also give directions for future clinical research in SSc

ANCA-associated vasculitis.

The anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitides (AAVs) are a group of disorders involving severe, systemic, small-vessel vasculitis and are characterized by the development of autoantibodies to the neutrophil proteins leukocyte proteinase 3 (PR3-ANCA) or myeloperoxidase (MPO-ANCA). The three AAV subgroups, namely granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), microscopic polyangiitis and eosinophilic GPA (EGPA), are defined according to clinical features. However, genetic and other clinical findings suggest that these clinical syndromes may be better classified as PR3-positive AAV (PR3-AAV), MPO-positive AAV (MPO-AAV) and, for EGPA, by the presence or absence of ANCA (ANCA+ or ANCA-, respectively). Although any tissue can be involved in AAV, the upper and lower respiratory tract and kidneys are most commonly and severely affected. AAVs have a complex and unique pathogenesis, with evidence for a loss of tolerance to neutrophil proteins, which leads to ANCA-mediated neutrophil activation, recruitment and injury, with effector T cells also involved. Without therapy, prognosis is poor but treatments, typically immunosuppressants, have improved survival, albeit with considerable morbidity from glucocorticoids and other immunosuppressive medications. Current challenges include improving the measures of disease activity and risk of relapse, uncertainty about optimal therapy duration and a need for targeted therapies with fewer adverse effects. Meeting these challenges requires a more detailed knowledge of the fundamental biology of AAV as well as cooperative international research and clinical trials with meaningful input from patients

Effectiveness and safety of tocilizumab in patients with systemic sclerosis: a propensity score matched controlled observational study of the EUSTAR cohort

Objectives Tocilizumab showed trends for improving skin fibrosis and prevented progression of lung fibrosis in systemic sclerosis (SSc) in randomised controlled clinical trials. We aimed to assess safety and effectiveness of tocilizumab in a real-life setting using the European Scleroderma Trial and Research (EUSTAR) database. Methods Patients with SSc fulfilling the American College of Rheumatology (ACR)/EULAR 2013 classification criteria, with baseline and follow-up visits at 12±3 months, receiving tocilizumab or standard of care as the control group, were selected. Propensity score matching was applied. Primary endpoints were the modified Rodnan skin score (mRSS) and FVC at 12±3 months compared between the groups. Secondary endpoints were the percentage of progressive/regressive patients for skin and lung at 12±3 months. Results Ninety-three patients with SSc treated with tocilizumab and 3180 patients with SSc with standard of care fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Comparison between groups did not show significant differences, but favoured tocilizumab across all predefined primary and secondary endpoints: mRSS was lower in the tocilizumab group (difference −1.0, 95% CI −3.7 to 1.8, p=0.48). Similarly, FVC % predicted was higher in the tocilizumab group (difference 1.5 (−6.1 to 9.1), p=0.70). The percentage of progressive/regressive patients favoured tocilizumab over controls. These results were robust regarding the sensitivity analyses. Safety analysis confirmed previously reported adverse event profiles. Conclusion Although this large, observational, controlled, real-life EUSTAR study did not show significant effectiveness of tocilizumab on skin and lung fibrosis, the consistency of direction of all predefined endpoints generates hypothesis for potential effectiveness in a broader SSc population

Health service and school: new interactions. Comparison between the Italian system and the Swedish system on the diagnostic process of pupils

The present study aims to compare the Italian and the Swedish systems of special scholastic support followed by a discussion on the understandings they are founded upon and the social implications they favour. The two systems are compared using a priori criteria regarding the focus of intervention, the role of the operators, and the relation to the client. What emerges are two systems that are different in terms of the level of institutionalisation of medical and/or neuropsychiatric certifications related to scholastic support, the role of school and that of health services. In Italy, it is only a biomedical assessment that can lead to the most extensive scholastic support. The Swedish system on the contrary assigns a key role to the head teacher and the pupil health team who can decide on special support based on various kinds of evaluations. However, even though neuropsychiatric diagnoses are almost non-significant on a policy level in the Swedish system, the biomedical discourse might in practice be the prevalent understanding of learning difficulties. The connection between difficulties in school and psychiatric diagnoses favour a re-interpretation of the pupil through biomedical explanations and in the worst scenario a deviant career. To counteract, both systems might benefit from a context-based intervention aiming at generating alternative identity possibilities for the pupils