The transformation of the Radical Right Gender Gap: The case of the 2014 EP Election

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Intravenous methylprednisolone pulses in hospitalised patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia, A double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial

Rationale: Pulse glucocorticoid therapy is used in hyperinflammation related to coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). We evaluated the efficacy and safety of pulse intravenous methylprednisolone in addition to standard treatment in COVID-19 pneumonia. Methods: In this multicenter, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 304 hospitalised patients with Covid-19 pneumonia were randomised to receive 1 g of methylprednisolone intravenously for 3 consecutive days or placebo in addition to standard dexamethasone. The primary outcome was the duration of the patient hospitalisation, calculated as the time interval between randomisation and hospital discharge without the need of supplementary oxygen. The key secondary outcomes were survival free from invasive ventilation with orotracheal intubation and overall survival. Results: Overall, 112 of 151 (75.4%) patients in the pulse methylprednisolone arm and 111 of 150 (75.2%) in the placebo arm were discharged from hospital without oxygen within 30 days from randomisation. Median time to discharge was similar in both groups [15 days (95% confidence interval (CI), 13.0 to 17.0) and 16 days (95%CI, 13.8 to 18.2); hazard ratio (HR), 0.92; 95% CI 0.71-1.20; p=0.528]. No significant differences between pulse methylprednisolone and placebo arms were observed in terms of admission to Intensive Care Unit with orotracheal intubation or death (20.0% versus 16.1%; HR, 1.26; 95%CI, 0.74-2.16; p=0.176), or overall mortality (10.0% versus 12.2%; HR, 0.83; 95%CI, 0.42-1.64; p=0.584). Serious adverse events occurred with similar frequency in the two groups. Conclusions: Methylprenisolone pulse therapy added to dexamethasone was not of benefit in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. Message of the study: Pulse glucocorticoid therapy is used for severe and/or life threatening immuno-inflammatory diseases. The addition of pulse glucocorticoid therapy to the standard low dose of dexamethasone scheme was not of benefit in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia

Mda-9/Syntenin Is Expressed in Uveal Melanoma and Correlates with Metastatic Progression

Uveal melanoma is an aggressive cancer that metastasizes to the liver in about half of the patients, with a high lethality rate. Identification of patients at high risk of metastases may provide indication for a frequent follow-up for early detection of metastases and treatment. The analysis of the gene expression profiles of primary human uveal melanomas showed high expression of SDCBP gene (encoding for syndecan-binding protein-1 or mda-9/syntenin), which appeared higher in patients with recurrence, whereas expression of syndecans was lower and unrelated to progression. Moreover, we found that high expression of SDCBP gene was related to metastatic progression in two additional independent datasets of uveal melanoma patients. More importantly, immunohistochemistry showed that high expression of mda-9/syntenin protein in primary tumors was significantly related to metastatic recurrence in our cohort of patients. Mda-9/syntenin expression was confirmed by RT-PCR, immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry in cultured uveal melanoma cells or primary tumors. Interestingly, mda-9/syntenin showed both cytoplasmic and nuclear localization in cell lines and in a fraction of patients, suggesting its possible involvement in nuclear functions. A pseudo-metastatic model of uveal melanoma to the liver was developed in NOD/SCID/IL2Rγ null mice and the study of mda-9/syntenin expression in primary and metastatic lesions revealed higher mda-9/syntenin in metastases. The inhibition of SDCBP expression by siRNA impaired the ability of uveal melanoma cells to migrate in a wound–healing assay. Moreover, silencing of SDCBP in mda-9/syntenin-high uveal melanoma cells inhibited the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)-triggered invasion of matrigel membranes and inhibited the activation of FAK, AKT and Src. Conversely syntenin overexpression in mda-9/syntenin-low uveal melanoma cells mediated opposite effects. These results suggest that mda-9/syntenin is involved in uveal melanoma progression and that it warrants further investigation as a candidate molecular marker of metastases and a potential therapeutic target

Polar Stars. Why the Political Ideologies of Modernity still Matter

Against the cliché that ours is a post-ideological age, the thesis of this book is that political ideologies are part of the very logic of modernity and continue to permeate 'hypermodern' politics. Using a multitude of primary sources (texts) and data, the author identifies the 'polar stars' - guiding principles such as order, freedom and equality - around which ideological camps, mainly in Europe, have developed in recent centuries. As an alternative to the overly reductive concepts of "left" and "right", this book adopts a different strategy to analyse the orientations of contemporary political movements, parties, policies and voters: it reconstructs the main ideological "matrices" of modern politics in their historical origins and in the subsequent phases of radicalisation and hybridisation, which still continue, both between these political matrices and with "metapolitical" ideologies such as populism. Moreover, the book outlines a broader theory that helps to interpret recent ideological trends as reflecting a peculiar "double movement" of modernity: the continuous tension between liberalizing pressures for more individual rights and, conversely, "centripetal" countermovements along both the matrix of order and that of socioeconomic equality.illustratorContro il cliché secondo cui che la nostra sarebbe un’epoca post-ideologica, la tesi di questo libro è che le ideologie politiche fanno parte della logica stessa della modernità e continuano a permeare la politica “ipermoderna”. Utilizzando una moltitudine di fonti primarie (testi) e dati, l'autore individua le "stelle polari" - principi guida come l'ordine, la libertà e l'uguaglianza - attorno alle quali si sono sviluppati i campi ideologici, principalmente in Europa, negli ultimi secoli. In alternativa ai concetti, troppo riduttivi, di “sinistra” e “destra”, questo libro adotta una diversa strategia per analizzare gli orientamenti dei movimenti politici, dei partiti, delle politiche e degli elettori contemporanei: ricostruisce le principali “matrici” ideologiche della politica moderna nelle loro origini storiche e nelle successive fasi di radicalizzazione e ibridazione, che ancora continuano, sia tra queste matrici politiche sia con ideologie “metapolitiche” come il populismo. Inoltre, il libro delinea una teoria più ampia che aiuta a interpretare le recenti tendenze ideologiche come il riflesso di un peculiare “doppio movimento” della modernità: la tensione continua tra pressioni liberalizzanti per maggiori diritti individuali e, viceversa, contromovimenti “centripeti” lungo sia la matrice dell'ordine, sia quella dell'uguaglianza socioeconomica