The impact of working conditions on mental health: Novel evidence from the UK

This paper investigates the causal impact of working conditions on mental health in the UK, combining new longitudinal data on working conditions from the European Working Conditions Survey with microdata from the UK Household Longitudinal Survey (Understanding Society). Our empirical strategy accounts for the endogenous sorting of individuals into occupations by including individual fixed effects. We address the potential endogeneity of occupational change over time by focusing only on individuals who remain in the same occupation (ISCO 3-digit), exploiting the variation in working conditions within each occupation over time. This variation, determined primarily by general macroeconomic conditions, is likely to be exogenous from the individual point of view. Our results indicate that, for female workers, improvements in working conditions such as skills and discretion, working time quality, and work intensity improve mental health outcomes such as loss of confidence, anxiety, social dysfunction, and risk of clinical depression. These effects are clinically relevant and substantial for younger and older female workers and larger for workers in occupations characterised by an inherently higher level of job strain. We detail how different dimensions of job quality impact different mental health outcomes for different age groups. Our results have important implications for public policies and firms which aim to improve workers’ wellbeing and productivity through workplace interventions focused on mental health

Neonatal effects of the administration of meperidine and promethazine to the mother in labor. Double blind study

Peer Reviewe

Study of the electron trigger efficiency of the CMS Experiment using test beam data

A study of the electron identification and selection efficiency of the L1 Trigger algorithm has been performed using the combined ECAL/HCAL test beam data. A detailed discussion of the electron isolation and its impact on the selection efficiency is presented. The L1 electron algorithm is studied for different beam energies and the results indicate that efficiencies of 98% or more can be achieved for electrons with energies between 15 and 100 GeV. The fraction of charged hadrons with energies from 3 up to 100 GeV rejected by the L1 electron trigger algorithm is estimated to be larger than 93%.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figure

Delirium in COVID-19: epidemiology and clinical correlations in a large group of patients admitted to an academic hospital

Background: Delirium incidence and clinical correlates in coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pneumonia are still poorly investigated. Aim: To describe the epidemiology of delirium in patients hospitalized for suspect COVID-19 pneumonia during the pandemic peak in an academic hospital of Northern Italy, identify its clinical correlations and evaluate the association with mortality. Methods: The clinical records of 852 patients admitted for suspect COVID-19 pneumonia, defined as respiratory symptoms or fever or certain history of contact with COVID-19 patients, plus chest CT imaging compatible with alveolar-interstitial pneumonia, were retrospectively analyzed. Delirium was defined after careful revision of daily clinical reports in accordance with the Confusion Assessment Method criteria. Data on age, clinical presentation, comorbidities, drugs, baseline lab tests and outcome were collected. The factors associated with delirium, and the association of delirium with mortality, were evaluated through binary logistic regression models. Results: Ninety-four patients (11%) developed delirium during stay. They were older (median age 82, interquartile range, IQR 78–89, vs 75, IQR 63–84, p < 0.001), had more neuropsychiatric comorbidities and worse respiratory exchanges at baseline. At multivariate models, delirium was independently and positively associated with age [odds ratio (OR) 1.093, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.046–1.143, p < 0.001], use of antipsychotic drugs (OR 4.529, 95% CI 1.204–17.027, p = 0.025), serum urea and lactate-dehydrogenase at admission. Despite a higher mortality in patients with delirium (57% vs 30%), this association was not independent of age and respiratory parameters. Conclusions: Delirium represents a common complication of COVID-19 and a marker of severe disease course, especially in older patients with neuropsychiatric comorbidity

The gut–muscle axis in older subjects with low muscle mass and performance: a proof of concept study exploring fecal microbiota composition and function with shotgun metagenomics sequencing

The gut microbiota could influence the pathophysiology of age‐related sarcopenia through multiple mechanisms implying modulation of chronic inflammation and anabolic resistance. The aim of this study was to compare the fecal microbiota composition and functionality, assessed by shotgun metagenomics sequencing, between two groups of elderly outpatients, differing only for the presence of primary sarcopenia. Five sarcopenic elderly subjects and twelve non‐sarcopenic controls, classified according to lower limb function and bioimpedance‐derived skeletal muscle index, provided a stool sample, which was analyzed with shotgun metagenomics approaches, to determine the overall microbiota composition, the representation of bacteria at the species level, and the prediction of bacterial genes involved in functional metabolic pathways. Sarcopenic subjects displayed different fecal microbiota compositions at the species level, with significant depletion of two species known for their metabolic capacity of producing short‐chain fatty acids (SCFAs), Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Roseburia inulinivorans, and of Alistipes shahii. Additionally, their fecal metagenome had different representation of genes belonging to 108 metabolic pathways, namely, depletion of genes involved in SCFA synthesis, carotenoid and isoflavone biotransformation, and amino acid interconversion. These results support the hypothesis of an association between microbiota and sarcopenia, indicating novel possible mediators, whose clinical relevance should be investigated in future studies

Commissioning of the CMS High Level Trigger

The CMS experiment will collect data from the proton-proton collisions delivered by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at a centre-of-mass energy up to 14 TeV. The CMS trigger system is designed to cope with unprecedented luminosities and LHC bunch-crossing rates up to 40 MHz. The unique CMS trigger architecture only employs two trigger levels. The Level-1 trigger is implemented using custom electronics, while the High Level Trigger (HLT) is based on software algorithms running on a large cluster of commercial processors, the Event Filter Farm. We present the major functionalities of the CMS High Level Trigger system as of the starting of LHC beams operations in September 2008. The validation of the HLT system in the online environment with Monte Carlo simulated data and its commissioning during cosmic rays data taking campaigns are discussed in detail. We conclude with the description of the HLT operations with the first circulating LHC beams before the incident occurred the 19th September 2008

Detection of SARS-CoV-2 on hospital surfaces

The COVID-19 pandemic, affecting 213 countries, with more than 10 million cases and over 500,000 deaths is still causing serious health, social and economic emergency worldwide. Italian Northern regions are among the most badly affected areas. Surfaces represent matrices to which particular attention should be paid for prevention and control of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. A few studies have highlighted virus presence on surfaces. We report the evidence of its presence on hospital surfaces, in a single room hosting a patient whose nose-pharyngeal swab resulted positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA at the admission. The surfaces sampling was carried out using pre-wetted swabs followed by extraction and amplification of viral RNA by reverse Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (rRT-PCR). A total of 4/15 (26.66%) surfaces were positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA: the right bed rail, the call button, the bed trapeze bar, the stethoscope; moreover, the patient’s inner surgical mask was positive, showing the emission of the virus from the patient. This study is a further confirmation that the surfaces represent a potential vehicle of transmission. This supports the need for strict adherence to hand and environmental hygiene. (www.actabiomedica.it)

Clinical features, histopathology and differential diagnosis of sarcoidosis

Sarcoidosis is a chameleon disease of unknown etiology, characterized by the growth of non-necrotizing and non-caseating granulomas and manifesting with clinical pictures that vary on the basis of the organs that are mainly affected. Lungs and intrathoracic lymph nodes are the sites that are most often involved, but virtually no organ is spared from this disease. Histopathology is distinctive but not pathognomonic, since the findings can be found also in other granulomatous disorders. The knowledge of these findings is important because it could be helpful to differentiate sarcoidosis from the other granulomatous-related diseases. This review aims at illustrating the main clinical and histopathological findings that could help clinicians in their routine clinical practice

Is lung ultrasound score a useful tool to monitoring and handling moderate and severe COVID-19 patients in the general ward? An observational pilot study

Lung ultrasound is a well-established diagnostic tool in acute respiratory failure, and it has been shown to be particularly suited for the management of COVID-19-associated respiratory failure. We present exploratory analyses on the diagnostic and prognostic performance of lung ultrasound score (LUS) in general ward patients with moderate-to-severe COVID-19 pneumonia receiving O2 supplementation and/or noninvasive ventilation. From March 10 through May 1, 2020, 103 lung ultrasound exams were performed by our Forward Intensive Care Team (FICT) on 26 patients (18 males and 8 females), aged 62 (54 – 76) and with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30.9 (28.7 – 31.5), a median 6 (5 – 9) days after admission to the COVID-19 medical unit of the University Hospital of Parma, Italy. All patients underwent chest computed tomography (CT) the day of admission. The initial LUS was 16 (11 – 21), which did not significantly correlate with initial CT scans, probably due to rapid progression of the disease and time between CT scan on admission and first FICT evaluation; conversely, LUS was significantly correlated with PaO2/FiO2 ratio throughout patient follow-up [R = − 4.82 (− 6.84 to − 2.80; p < 0.001)]. The area under the receiving operating characteristics curve of LUS for the diagnosis of moderate-severe disease (PaO2/FiO2 ratio ≤ 200 mmHg) was 0.73, with an optimal cutoff value of 11 (positive predictive value: 0.98; negative predictive value: 0.29). Patients who eventually needed invasive ventilation and/or died during admission had significantly higher LUS throughout their stay