Promotion of Resilience in Migrants: A Systematic Review of Study and Psychosocial Intervention

This systematic review aimed to contribute to a better and more focused understanding of the link between the concept of resilience and psychosocial interventions in the migrant population. The research questions concerned the type of population involved, definition of resilience, methodological choices and which intervention programmes were targeted at migrants. In the 90 articles included, an heterogeneity in defining resilience or not well specified definition resulted. Different migratory experiences were not adequately considered in the selection of participants. Few resilience interventions on migrants were resulted. A lack of procedure’s descriptions that keep in account specific migrants’ life-experiences and efficacy’s measures were highlighted

IgG4 related disease in elderly: A case report

IgG4-related systemic disease (IgG4-RSD) is an emerging autoimmune disorder that may affect several organs, with signs of organ fibrosis, storiform masses for hystopathological plasmacellular infiltration and plasmatic elevation of IgG4. This clinical condition frequently occurs in the sixth decade and may be considered an autoimmunity of the elderly; the disease may have a smouldering course with frequent misdiagnosis for the co-occurrence of comorbidity and clinical complexity. The present case report describes the clinical case of an 81 years old woman admitted to the geriatric ward for remittent fever and functional decline. The past clinical history reported an isolated CT scan suggestive of retroperitoneal fibrosis of unknown origin with and a drug regimen that included chronic corticosteroids (prednisone 5 mg oad). The in hospital diagnostic workout demonstrated the presence of a thoracic aneurysm. Several possible diagnoses among inflammatory, autoimmune (connective tissue disease, vasculitis, sarcoidosis, amyloidosis), infectious (mycotic) or neoplastic conditions were ruled out, as well as any drug association with higher risk of retroperitoneal fibrosis. Thus, the clinical hypothesis of an IgG4 chronic periaortitis was formulated due to the co-occurrence of all the three major components: the presence of a retroperitoneal fibrosis, IgG4 related abdominal aortitis and peryaneurysmal fibrosis. Patient\u2019s comorbidity did not allow performing the histological analysis. The present clinical case is original and adds knowledge to the 76 cases of thoracic aortitis due to IgG4 systemic disease out of the 3482 cases of disease reported so far. Further clinical investigation is needed to provide a homogeneous diagnostic workout for tailored early therapeutic intervention on the single geriatric patient. Moreover, a growing awareness of the disease is needed, especially in geriatrics, to providing a better standard of care and to improving the disease clinical knowledge and managemen

The OPERA magnetic spectrometer

The OPERA neutrino oscillation experiment foresees the construction of two magnetized iron spectrometers located after the lead-nuclear emulsion targets. The magnet is made up of two vertical walls of rectangular cross section connected by return yokes. The particle trajectories are measured by high precision drift tubes located before and after the arms of the magnet. Moreover, the magnet steel is instrumented with Resistive Plate Chambers that ease pattern recognition and allow a calorimetric measurement of the hadronic showers. In this paper we review the construction of the spectrometers. In particular, we describe the results obtained from the magnet and RPC prototypes and the installation of the final apparatus at the Gran Sasso laboratories. We discuss the mechanical and magnetic properties of the steel and the techniques employed to calibrate the field in the bulk of the magnet. Moreover, results of the tests and issues concerning the mass production of the Resistive Plate Chambers are reported. Finally, the expected physics performance of the detector is described; estimates rely on numerical simulations and the outcome of the tests described above.Comment: 6 pages, 10 figures, presented at the 2003 IEEE-NSS conference, Portland, OR, USA, October 20-24, 200

Follicular proliferation TIR3B. The role of total thyroidectomy vs lobectomy

Background: TIR3B thyroid nodules are considered to be at risk of malignancy (15-30%) but guidelines recommend conservative surgery with lobectomy with primary diagnostic porpoise. Risk stratification mainly based on ultrasound, elastography and genetic mutations usually may influences the surgical approach. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 52 cases of TIR3B underwent between 2015 and 2017 total thyroidectomy (TT) and lobectomy (L), focusing mainly on the observed rate of malignancy. Chi-squared test and Fisher's exact probability test were used for analysis, considering a P values less than 0.05 as significant. Results: Out of 52 patients 49 underwent TT and 3 L. In TT group a multinodular goiter was associated in 67.3% of patients. Malignancy rate was 81.6 and 33.3% respectively after TT and L (P 0.003). Multicentric and contralateral tumors were detected respectively in 36.7% and in 32.6% of patients underwent TT. No main post-operative complications were registered. Conclusions: Ultrasound and elastography are useful to define within the TIR3B group those lesions at higher risk and therefore requiring a more radical approach. TT seems an appropriate approach to TIR3B lesions, especially in multinodular goiter, considering the incidence of malignancy with probably higher rate than previously reported

Male breast cancer, clinical presentation, diagnosis and treatment: Twenty years of experience in our Breast Unit

BACKGROUND: The male breast cancer (MBC) is a rare and represents less than 1% of all malignancies in men and only 1% of all breast cancers incident. We illustrate the experience of our team about the clinico-pathological characteristics, treatment and prognostic factors of patients treated over a period of twenty years . RESULTS: Forty-seven patients were collected 1995-2014 at the Breast Unit of the Hospital of Terni, Italy. The average age was 67 years and the median time to diagnosis from the onset of symptoms was 16 months. The main clinical complaint was sub areolar swelling in 36, 76% of cases. Most patients have come to our attention with advanced disease. The histology of about ninety percent of the tumors were invasive ductal carcinoma. Management consisted mainly of radical mastectomy; followed by adjuvant radiotherapy and hormonal therapy with or without chemotherapy. The median follow-up was 38 months. The evolution has been characterized by local recurrences; in eight cases (17% of all patients). Metastasis occurred in 15 cases (32% of all patients). The site of bone metastases was in eight cases; lung in four cases; liver in three cases; liver and skin in one case and pleura and skin in one case. CONCLUSION: The male breast cancer has many similarities to breast cancer in women, but there are distinct functions that need to be appreciated. Future research for a better understanding of the disease should provide a better account of genetic and epigenetic characteristics of these forms; but, above all, epidemiological and biological cohorts numerically more consistent

Search for spontaneous muon emission from lead nuclei

We describe a possible search for muonic radioactivity from lead nuclei using the base elements ("bricks" composed by lead and nuclear emulsion sheets) of the long-baseline OPERA neutrino experiment. We present the results of a Monte Carlo simulation concerning the expected event topologies and estimates of the background events. Using few bricks, we could reach a good sensitivity level.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

POSEIDON: An integrated system for analysis and forecast of hydrological, meteorological and surface marine fields in the Mediterranean area

The Mediterranean area is characterized by relevant hydrological, meteorological and marine processes developing at horizontal space-scales of the order of 1–100 km. In the recent past, several international programs have been addressed (ALPEX, POEM, MAP, etc.)to “resolving” the dynamics of such motions. Other projects (INTERREG-Flooding, MEDEX, etc.)are at present being developed with special emphasis on catastrophic events with major impact on human society that are, quite often, characterized in their manifestation by processes with the above-mentioned scales of motion. In the dynamical evolution of such events, however, equally important is the dynamics of interaction of the local (and sometimes very damaging)pro cesses with others developing at larger scales of motion. In fact, some of the most catastrophic events in the history of Mediterranean countries are associated with dynamical processes covering all the range of space-time scales from planetary to local. The Prevision Operational System for the mEditerranean basIn and the Defence of the lagOon of veNice (POSEIDON)is an integrated system for the analysis and forecast of hydrological, meteorological, oceanic fields specifically designed and set up in order to bridge the gap between global and local scales of motion, by modeling explicitly the above referred to dynamical processes in the range of scales from Mediterranean to local. The core of POSEIDON consists of a “cascade” of numerical models that, starting from global scale numerical analysisforecast, goes all the way to very local phenomena, like tidal propagation in Venice Lagoon. The large computational load imposed by such operational design requires necessarily parallel computing technology: the first model in the cascade is a parallelised version of BOlogna Limited Area Model (BOLAM)running on a Quadrics 128 processors computer (also known as QBOLAM). POSEIDON, developed in the context of a co-operation between the Italian Agency for New technologies, Energy and Environment (Ente per le Nuove tecnologie, l’Energia e l’Ambiente, ENEA)and the Italian Agency for Environmental Protection and Technical Services (Agenzia per la Protezione dell’Ambiente e per i Servizi Tecnici, APAT), has become operational in 2000 and we are presently in the condition of drawing some preliminary conclusions about its performance. In the paper we describe the scientific concepts that were at the basis of the original planning, the structure of the system, its operational cycle and some preliminary scientific and technical evaluations after two years of experimentation

Electron/pion separation with an Emulsion Cloud Chamber by using a Neural Network

We have studied the performance of a new algorithm for electron/pion separation in an Emulsion Cloud Chamber (ECC) made of lead and nuclear emulsion films. The software for separation consists of two parts: a shower reconstruction algorithm and a Neural Network that assigns to each reconstructed shower the probability to be an electron or a pion. The performance has been studied for the ECC of the OPERA experiment [1]. The $e/\pi$ separation algorithm has been optimized by using a detailed Monte Carlo simulation of the ECC and tested on real data taken at CERN (pion beams) and at DESY (electron beams). The algorithm allows to achieve a 90% electron identification efficiency with a pion misidentification smaller than 1% for energies higher than 2 GeV