I luoghi della nascita: una ricerca-intervento sui fattori di rischio nelle madri migranti

El embarazo implica cambios físicos y también relacionales y afectivos. Durante los nueve meses, y en los meses posteriores al nacimiento, las mujeres desarrollan una serie de expectativas y fantasías sobre sí mismos y sus hijos. La manera en la que las las mujeres viven su maternidad expresa, además, los valores culturales, los mitos, y las reglas que la sociedad ha transmitido. Entonces, el nacimiento puede considerarse como un evento cultural con características distintivas. Pasando de estas consideraciones, nos preguntamos cómo las mujeres inmigrantes viven su experiencia de la maternidad en un país extranjero. Examinamos la manera en que las mujeres llevan a cabo la reconstrucción, la historia de su embarazo en relación con su propia identidad maternal, la identidad de su hijo y su cultura de origen, para evaluar el riesgo de depresión posparto. En este estudio, reunimos a 11 mujeres inmigrantes, que pertenecen a diferentes culturas y viven en Palermo. Las participantes realizaron una entrevista semiestructurada sobre representaciones maternas (IRMAG y IRMAN respectivamente), un dibujo simbólico del espacio de la vida familiar (DSSVF) y luego la escala de Depresión Postnatal Edimburgo (EPDS) durante el embarazo y puerperio.Pregnancy involves physical changes but also relational and affective ones. During the nine months’ period and in the months following the birth, women develop a series of expectations and fantasies about themselves and their child. The way women live their motherhood expresses, in addition, the cultural values, the myths, the rules society has transmitted to them. Then, birth can be considered as a cultural event with distinctive features. Moving from these considerations, we wondered how immigrant women live their experience of motherhood in a foreign country. We examined the way women reconstruct the history of their pregnancy in relation to their own maternal identity, the identity of their child and their culture of origin, to evaluate the risk of post-partum depression. In this study, we met 11 immigrant women, who belong to different cultures and live in Palermo. The participants were administered a semi-structured interview about maternal representations (IRMAG and IRMAN respectively),a symbolic drawing of family life space (DSSVF) and then the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) during pregnancy and puerperium.peerReviewe

Sexing up the international

This thesis takes sexuality as its subject matter and uses a methodology informed by postcolonial studies to explore new possibilities for thinking about the international, its construction, and its contemporary politics. I argue that postcolonial readings of sexuality can impel us to rethink the meanings and politics of international theory and to challenge notions that have come to appear fixed and unchanging. The thesis canvasses how such an intervention might occur – calling especially for a focus on the local and the everyday – and considers both the utility and the limits of the contributions sexuality might make to a rethinking of international theory. My arguments are made with reference to a series of specific examples from contemporary East and Southeast Asia: the nationalistically imbued gendered and sexed figures of the national serviceman and the Singapore Girl in Singapore; the political and social repercussions of the trial of former Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on charges of sodomy; newly emerging homosexual identities in Hong Kong; and the connections between sexuality and disease that inform the Thai response to HIV/AIDS. These case studies exemplify some of the ways in which sexuality can work to recast traditional scholarly understandings of the international. They also illuminate a series of aspects that shape the encounter between sexuality and the international, encompassing issues of nationalism, globalization, metaphor, spatiality and knowledge politics. Through my analysis of these issues, I argue for a broadening out of the source materials that inform knowledge about the international and the pursuit of alternative modes of reading processes of international change and exchange. I contend that scholarship of the international needs to pay more attention to instances where the borders separating everyday, national and international spaces break down, and where we might detect new forms of knowledge about the nature, politics and functioning of the international realm

Serum thyroid hormone antibodies are frequent in patients with polyglandular autoimmune syndrome type 3, particularly in those who require thyroxine treatment

Polyglandular autoimmune syndrome (PAS) type 3 consists of autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) coexisting with ≥1 non-thyroidal autoimmune disease (NTAID) other than Addison’s disease and hypoparathyroidism. We evaluated the prevalence and repertoire of thyroid hormones antibodies (THAb) in PAS-3 patients. Using a radioimmunoprecipation technique, we measured THAb (T3IgM, T3IgG, T4IgM, and T4IgG) in 107 PAS-3 patients and 88 controls (patients with AITD without any NTAID). Based on the selective coexistence of AITD with one NTAID (chronic autoimmune gastritis, non-segmental vitiligo or celiac disease), patients were divided into group 1 (chronic autoimmune gastritis positive, n = 64), group 2 (non-segmental vitiligo positive, n = 24), and group 3 (celiac disease positive, n = 15). At least one of the four THAb was detected in 45 PAS-3 patients (42.1%) and 28 controls (31.8%, P = 0.14), with similar rates in the three PAS-3 groups. The rates of T3Ab, T4Ab, and T3 + T4Ab were similar in groups 1 and 2, while in group 3, T3Ab was undetected (P = 0.02). In PAS-3 patients, the rate of levothyroxine treatment was greater in THAb-positive patients compared to THAb-negative patients (76.7 vs. 56.1%, P = 0.03, RR = 1.4, 95% CI 1.03–1.81). Not unexpectedly, levothyroxine daily dose was significantly higher in group 1 and group 3, namely in patients with gastrointestinal disorders, compared to group 2 (1.9 ± 0.4 and 1.8 ± 0.3 vs. 1.5 ± 0.2 μg/kg body weight, P = 0.0005 and P = 0.004). Almost half of PAS-3 patients have THAb, whose repertoire is similar if chronic autoimmune gastritis or celiac disease is present. A prospective study would confirm whether THAb positivity predicts greater likelihood of requiring levothyroxine treatment

Immunological diagnosis as an adjunctive tool for an early diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis of an immune competent child in a low tuberculosis endemic country: A case report

Background: Pediatric tuberculous meningitis is a highly morbid, often fatal disease. Its prompt diagnosis and treat - ment saves lives, in fact delays in the initiation of therapy have been associated with high mortality rates. Case presentation: This is a case of an Italian child who was diagnosed with tuberculous meningitis after a history of a month of headache, fatigue and weight loss. Cerebrospinal fluid analysis revealed a lymphocytic pleocytosis with predominance and decreased glucose concentration. Microscopy and conventional diagnostic tests to identify Myco - bacterium tuberculosis were negative, while a non classical method based on intracellular cytokine flow cytometry response of CD4 cells in cerebral spinal fluid helped us to address the diagnosis, that was subsequently confirmed by a nested polymerase chain reaction amplifying a 123 base pair fragment of the M. tuberculosis DNA. Conclusions: We diagnosed tuberculous meningitis at an early stage through an innovative immunological approach, supported by a nested polymerase chain reaction for detection of M. tuberculosis DNA. An early diagnosis is required in order to promptly initiate a therapy and to increase the patient’s surviva

Dermoscopy and methyl aminolevulinate: A study for detection and evaluation of field cancerization

Actinic keratosis (AK) is a keratinocyte intraepidermal neoplasia UV light – induced that frequently appears in sun-exposed areas of the skin. Although historically AK was de fi ned as “ precancerous ” , actually it is considered as the earliest stage of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in situ. Since AKs can progress into invasive SCC, their treatment isrecommended. AKsrarely developasa singlelesion;usually multiplelesions commonly affect anen- tire area of chronically actinic damaged skin. This has led to the concept of “ fi eld cancerization ” , an area chroni- cally sun-exposed that surrounds peripherally visible lesions, in which are individualized subclinical alterations. One of the main principles endpoint in the management of AKs is the evaluation and the treatment of fi eld cancerization. In this view, in order to detect and quantify fi eld cancerization, we employed a method based on the topical application of methyl aminolevulinate (MAL) and the detection of the fl uorescence emitted by its metabolite Protoporphyrin IX (PpIX); then, considering the extension and the intensity of measured fl uores- cence, we create a score of fi eld cancerization. The results show that patients underwent to daylight PDT had a reduction of total score, from T0 to T2. Whereas in the group untreated we observed a stability of total score or a slightly worse. So, the method and the score used allows to evaluate with a good approximation the dimension of fi eld cancerization and show the modi fi cation of it after treatment

Efikasna metoda analize reflektorskih nizova

In this paper, we present an efficient technique based on the extension of the Adaptive Integral Method (AIM) that allows the full-wave analysis of microstrip reflectarrays. The reflectarray patches can have arbitrary shape and orientation and are modelled with subdomain triangular basis functions. The method makes use of a 2D-FTT/CG scheme, reducing the CPU time per iteration to O(N logN) and the memory requirement to O(N).U radu je opisana efikasna metoda analize zasnovana na proširenju adaptivne integralne metode (AIM) koja omogućuje punovalnu analizu mikrotrakastih reflektorskih nizova. Pločice, elementi reflektorskih nizova, mogu imati proizvoljni oblik i orijentaciju pa su modelirane trokutasnim baznim funkcijama s domenom na dijelu pločice. Metoda rabi 2D-FTT/CG shemu, i pri tome smanjuje potrebno vrijeme rada računala na O(N logN) i memorijske zahtjeve na O(N)

Spaghetti Enriched with Inulin: Effect of Polymerization Degree on Quality Traits and α-Amylase Inhibition

Inulin is considered a dietary fiber and represents a noteworthy ingredient for food biofortification due to its health effects and its neutral taste. The aim of the work was the evaluation of the quality of pasta produced using whole-meal flours of two ancient Sicilian landraces (Senatore Cappelli-CAP and Timilia—TIM) fortified with two types of inulin (long-chain topinambur inulin IT and low-chain chicory inulin IC), at two different levels of substitution (2 and 4%) to evaluate its possible effect on α-amylase inhibition. The color indices L* and a* were mainly influenced by cultivars, while IT improved the sensory attributes, mainly the elasticity sensation, and influenced less the other sensory attributes: adhesiveness, color, odor, taste, and Over Quality Score for both landraces. The cooking quality was linked mainly to the landrace used, due to the very different gluten matrix of CAP and TIM. IC and IT showed promising α-Amy inhibitory activity with comparable IC50 values of 0.45 ± 0.04 and 0.50 ± 0.06 mg/mL. The enrichment of spaghetti with inulin with an inhibitory effect on α-amylase determined the hypoglycemic properties of pasta, thus lowering the corresponding IC50 value