On the adoption of e-moped sharing systems

AbstractRecent years have witnessed the emerging of novel shared mobility solutions that provide diffused on-demand access to transportation. The widespread adoption of these solutions, particularly electric mopeds (e-mopeds), is expected to bring important benefits such as the reduction of noise and atmospheric pollution, and road congestion, with extensive repercussions on liveability and quality of life in urban areas. Currently, almost no effort has been devoted to exploring the adoption patterns of e-moped sharing services, therefore, optimal management and allocation of vehicles appears to be a problem for service managers. In this study, we tried to demonstrate the validity of the hypothesis that the adoption of electric mopeds depends on the built environment and demographic aspects of each neighbourhood. In detail, we singled out three features concerning the area characteristics (distance from centre, walkability, concentration of places) and one about the population (education index). The results obtained on a real world case study show the strong impact these factors have in determining the adoption of e-moped sharing services. Finally, an analysis was conducted on the possible role that the electric moped sharing can play in social equalization by studying the interactions between rich and poor neighbourhoods. The results of the analyses conducted indicate that communities within a city tend to aggregate by wealth and isolate themselves from one another (social isolation): very few interactions, in terms of trajectories, have been observed between the richest and poorest areas of the city under study

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Is Associated with Altered Neuropsychological Performance in Young Adults

Subjects with ischemic lesions have an increased risk of dementia. In addition, Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular cognitive impairment share many risk factors. These observations suggest that different diseases that cause altered blood perfusion of the brain or hypoxia promote AD neurodegeneration. In this case-control, cross-sectional study, we sought to test the hypothesis that hypoxia facilitates cognitive decline. We looked for altered neuropsychological performance in subjects with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) without apparent cardio- or cerebrovascular diseases or risk factors for atherosclerosis. A selected, homogeneous group of workers from two ceramic factories in a small town of central Italy was enrolled in this study. The COPD patients had a slightly, but significantly worse performance than controls in a number of neuropsychological tests. The findings are consistent with the working hypothesis that chronic hypoxia facilitates cognitive decline

Catamenial pneumothorax: Not only VATS diagnosis

BackgroundCatamenial pneumothorax (CP) is a rare type of spontaneous, recurring pneumothorax occurring in women, from the day before menstruation until 72 hours after its beginning. Conservative treatment is generally associated with recurrence of CP. Video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) approach allows not only to obtain diagnosis but also to guide definitive treatment of causing lesions, such as ectopic endometrial implants or diaphragmatic defects and fenestrations. We report our experience in VATS management of CP to focus on its role in CP.Materials and methodsIn this retrospective observational study, we collected data from women referred to our center for CP, from January 2019 to April 2022. All patients underwent VATS approach, with muscle-sparing thoracotomy when diaphragmatic fenestrations were detected, to perform selective diaphragmatic plication and/or partial diaphragmatic resection. Results were analyzed in terms of pneumothorax recurrence after surgical treatment. All patients were referred to gynecologists for medical therapy.ResultsEight women (median age 36 years, range: 21–45), all with right side CP, were included; three already had pelvic endometriosis and two had already undergone lung apicectomy at other institutions. VATS allowed us to detect diaphragmatic fenestrations in seven patients (87.5%) and apical bullae in five (62.5%). Apicectomy was performed in five cases (62.5%), selective diaphragmatic plication in two (25%), and partial diaphragmatic resection in five (62.5%). Chemical pleurodesis with talc was performed in all to minimize the risk of recurrence. Pathological diagnosis of endometriosis on the resected diaphragm was achieved in five patients (62.5%). No recurrence occurred, except for one woman who stopped medical treatment for endometriosis.ConclusionsIn the management of patients with CP, VATS should be recommended not only to obtain an explorative diagnosis of ectopic endometrial implants or diaphragmatic fenestrations but also to allow the most appropriate surgical treatment and obtain pathological specimens for confirmation and definitive diagnosis of thoracic endometriosis. Medical therapy to achieve ovarian rest is mandatory in the postoperative period and should not be discontinued

Exposure to Gastric Acid Inhibitors Increases the Risk of Infection in Preterm Very Low Birth Weight Infants but Concomitant Administration of Lactoferrin Counteracts This Effect

Objective: To investigate whether exposure to inhibitors of gastric acidity, such as H2 blockers or proton pump inhibitors, can independently increase the risk of infections in very low birth weight (VLBW) preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit. Study design: This is a secondary analysis of prospectively collected data from a multicenter, randomized controlled trial of bovine lactoferrin (BLF) supplementation (with or without the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG) vs placebo in prevention of late-onset sepsis (LOS) and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in preterm infants. Inhibitors of gastric acidity were used at the recommended dosages/schedules based on the clinical judgment of attending physicians. The distribution of days of inhibitors of gastric acidity exposure between infants with and without LOS/NEC was assessed. The mutually adjusted effects of birth weight, gestational age, duration of inhibitors of gastric acidity treatment, and exposure to BLF were controlled through multivariable logistic regression. Interaction between inhibitors of gastric acidity and BLF was tested; the effects of any day of inhibitors of gastric acidity exposure were then computed for BLF-treated vs -untreated infants. Results: Two hundred thirty-five of 743 infants underwent treatment with inhibitors of gastric acidity, and 86 LOS episodes occurred. After multivariate analysis, exposure to inhibitors of gastric acidity remained significantly and independently associated with LOS (OR, 1.03; 95% CI, 1.008-1.067; P = .01); each day of inhibitors of gastric acidity exposure conferred an additional 3.7% odds of developing LOS. Risk was significant for Gram-negative (P < .001) and fungal (P = .001) pathogens, but not for Gram-positive pathogens (P = .97). On the test for interaction, 1 additional day of exposure to inhibitors of gastric acidity conferred an additional 7.7% risk for LOS (P = .003) in BLF-untreated infants, compared with 1.2% (P = .58) in BLF-treated infants. Conclusion: Exposure to inhibitors of gastric acidity is significantly associated with the occurrence of LOS in preterm VLBW infants. Concomitant administration of BLF counteracts this selective disadvantage. Trial registration: isrctn.org: ISRCTN53107700

Spliceosome malfunction causes neurodevelopmental disorders with overlapping features

Pre-mRNA splicing is a highly coordinated process. While its dysregulation has been linked to neurological deficits, our understanding of the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms remains limited. We implicated pathogenic variants in U2AF2 and PRPF19, encoding spliceosome subunits in neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), by identifying 46 unrelated individuals with 23 de novo U2AF2 missense variants (including 7 recurrent variants in 30 individuals) and 6 individuals with de novo PRPF19 variants. Eight U2AF2 variants dysregulated splicing of a model substrate. Neuritogenesis was reduced in human neurons differentiated from human pluripotent stem cells carrying two U2AF2 hyper-recurrent variants. Neural loss of function (LoF) of the Drosophila orthologs U2af50 and Prp19 led to lethality, abnormal mushroom body (MB) patterning, and social deficits, which were differentially rescued by wild-type and mutant U2AF2 or PRPF19. Transcriptome profiling revealed splicing substrates or effectors (including Rbfox1, a third splicing factor), which rescued MB defects in U2af50deficient flies. Upon reanalysis of negative clinical exomes followed by data sharing, we further identified 6 patients with NDD who carried RBFOX1 missense variants which, by in vitro testing, showed LoF. Our study implicates 3 splicing factors as NDD-causative genes and establishes a genetic network with hierarchy underlying human brain development and function

Lung Ultrasound: A New Tool in the Management of Congenital Lung Malformation

 This study was aimed to evaluate effectiveness of lung ultrasound (LUS) in the management of congenital pulmonary airway malformation and pulmonary sequestration in NICUs

Local Use-Dependent Sleep in Wakefulness Links Performance Errors to Learning

Sleep and wakefulness are no longer to be considered as discrete states. During wakefulness brain regions can enter a sleep-like state (off-periods) in response to a prolonged period of activity (local use-dependent sleep). Similarly, during nonREM sleep the slow-wave activity, the hallmark of sleep plasticity, increases locally in brain regions previously involved in a learning task. Recent studies have demonstrated that behavioral performance may be impaired by off-periods in wake in task-related regions. However, the relation between off-periods in wake, related performance errors and learning is still untested in humans. Here, by employing high density electroencephalographic (hd-EEG) recordings, we investigated local use-dependent sleep in wake, asking participants to repeat continuously two intensive spatial navigation tasks. Critically, one task relied on previous map learning (Wayfinding) while the other did not (Control). Behaviorally awake participants, who were not sleep deprived, showed progressive increments of delta activity only during the learning-based spatial navigation task. As shown by source localization, delta activity was mainly localized in the left parietal and bilateral frontal cortices, all regions known to be engaged in spatial navigation tasks. Moreover, during the Wayfinding task, these increments of delta power were specifically associated with errors, whose probability of occurrence was significantly higher compared to the Control task. Unlike the Wayfinding task, during the Control task neither delta activity nor the number of errors increased progressively. Furthermore, during the Wayfinding task, both the number and the amplitude of individual delta waves, as indexes of neuronal silence in wake (off-periods), were significantly higher during errors than hits. Finally, a path analysis linked the use of the spatial navigation circuits undergone to learning plasticity to off periods in wake. In conclusion, local sleep regulation in wakefulness, associated with performance failures, could be functionally linked to learning-related cortical plasticity