Body in the forefront, again? Distance learning drawbacks and implications for policy

The COVID-19 pandemic launched a challenge on the education system and required schools to make organizational changes in order to continue serving the local community. Essential to this process are support teachers who play a key role as agents of change. Despite their role, the perspectives, desires, and needs of these teachers have since been neglected, despite their centrality in contemporary Italy. Accordingly, the specific aim of this study revolves around supporting teachers’ experiences with digital technologies (i.e., learning applications, telecommunication media, and interactive devices) within a pandemic context, especially technologies used to maintain the educational bond with students with disabilities. Attuned to an interpretative paradigm, this qualitative research has an ethnographic design, which was implemented in a secondary school in a Northern Italian city. Throughout the article, we discuss the three main drawbacks found in fieldwork: (i) the prevailing change in bureaucratic management; (ii) the pervading mind–body binarism in teaching; and (iii) a long-term vision for inclusion being subject to a passive logic of adaptation. Finally, we reflect on some emerging implications. The first points to a necessary move from a rationalistic school management to an alternative model focused more on guaranteeing social justice among educational stakeholders. The second is that the very introduction of a new technology should be aimed at engaging actors whose work has been invisible to date in a school setting to empower them as key agents for change. The third suggests that, to overcome community disaggregation and mind-body binarism, a teacher-researcher figure is needed, a figure with holistic skills in addition to those of a technical nature delivered by institutional training programs

Characteristics of patients affecting the duration of positivity at SARS-CoV-2: a cohort analysis of the first wave of epidemic in Italy

OBJECTIVES: to investigate the characteristics of patients affecting the duration of positivity test by RT-PCR in the population of Piedmont, a Region of North-West of Italy.DESIGN: observational cohort study.SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: from the administrative database of the regional SARS-CoV-2 surveillance system, a cohort of all patients who tested positive by a RT-PCR assay to SARS-CoV-2 occurring from 22.02.2020 to 30.09.2020 in the Piedmont Region (N. 29,292) was obtained. The cohort has been linked to the hospital discharge database and to the vital statistics database.MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES: outcome of the study was the risk of non negativization, estimated by fitting Generalizing Estimating Equation model (GEE), a longitudinal model which consider for each subject several records collected on fixed time intervals 15, 30, 45 or 60+ days from the first positive test. Negativization was defined as the condition in which two consecutive samples taken from the patient at least 24 hours apart were negative for the presence of SARS-CoV-2.RESULTS: the median duration of positive RT-PCR was 27 days. A higher median of days until positive persistence was observed in people over 80 (34 days, IQR 25-49), female (28 days, IQR 18-40), symptomatic patients (28 days, IQR 1940), hospitalized people (32 days, IQR 21-44), patients with Charlson's index >0 (34 days, IQR 23-49), patients host of elderly nursing homes (37 days, IQR 25-51). In the GEE multivariable model, the variables associated to the non negativization at all times intervals were: older age (at 15th day: class 65+, OR 2.56, 95%CI 2.39-2.74), female gender (at 15th day: OR 1.12, 95%CI 1.06-1.18), and to be hospitalized for COVID-19 (at 15th day: OR 1.38, 95%CI 1.29-1.48). The presence of comorbidities and of symptoms were associate with the non negativization at 15th day (respectively, class 4+: OR 1.29, 95%CI 1.08-1.56 and symptoms: OR 1.20, 95%CI 1.13-1.27), but not at 45th day.CONCLUSIONS: older age, female gender, presence of comorbidities and severity of disease (proxy hospitalization for COVID-19) were risk factors for non negativization at all times intervals. The presence of symptoms was a risk factors for the non negativization after 2 weeks from the first diagnosis and not at 45th day. Using a longitudinal model for the analysis of the dataset, it is possible to compare the weight of the variables included in the model at different times and correct an overestimation of the attributable risk after the first considered time interval

A successful approach to conrol burning mouth syndrome using matricaria recutita and cognitive therapy

The burning mouth syndrome (BMS) has no specific clinical and laboratory signs. Its etiology is yet to be elucidated, but it is considered to be affected by multifactorial, psychological, and local and systemic factors. This condition is considered of great morbidity, and the main complaint of patients maybe associated with xerostomia, thirst, and altered taste. The present study aims to report two cases of BMS and to evaluate the outcome of cognitive therapy (CT) plus phytotherapy in the control of BMS. The patients were female, Caucasian, and aged between 58 and 69 years. The most BMS-affected anatomical parts were the lips and the tongue. In the clinical approach, oral and systemic evaluation, and disease management with CT plus chamomile tea were done. The patients were reassured, and their response to therapy one year after was found to be excellent despite few exacerbations in periods of great emotional stress. Thus, we conclude that psychological treatment is vital in the management of BMS, as CT, along with Matricaria recutita phytotherapy, displayed excellent results in the control of BMS

Evaluation of the galactogogue effect of silymarin on mothers of preterm newborns (<32 weeks)

Hypogalactia has a relative high frequency in women having delivered preterm infants, who often have difficulties in maintaining a sufficient production of milk for their infants’ needs over prolonged periods of time. Recent studies have shown a potential galactogogue effect of silymarin on milk production in animal models (cows and rats) and in humans (mothers of term newborns); nonetheless, none of the studies conducted on humans consisted of double-blind randomized clinical trials and no data are available concerning mothers who delivered preterm infants. The aim of our study was to assess the efficacy of silymarin (BIO-C®) as galactogogue and its tolerability in mothers who delivered preterm infants. We enrolled 50 mothers at 10±1 days post-partum who had delivered infants at ® and placebo arms. No adverse events were observed in the 2 arms among mothers and infants, and silymarin and its metabolites were not detectable in the analyzed human milk samples. Further investigation on specific patient groups affected by hypogalactia, defined according to stricter criteria, should be planned to assess the efficacy of the product in increasing milk production

An unusual abdominal wall mass in a child

Abdominal tumors are one of the most common types of pediatric cancer. Therefore, they should always be included in the differential diagnosis of abdominal masses. Here, we present the case of a child whose initial hypothesis of diagnosis contemplated this possibility. Later, it was demonstrated that the abdominal mass found was secondary to a common parasitosis. A 2-year old, moderately malnourished and pale white boy was referred with a history of a rapidly growing, well-limited, middle abdominal mass. The mass was 10 by 3 cm, hard and poorly movable, apparently involving both abdominal rectus muscles. A complete resection was performed, revealing an abdominal wall abscess, with intense eosinophilic proliferation, secondary to a local and intense reaction to innumerous Ascaris lumbricoides eggs. Extra luminal infestations with Ascaris, that usually form peritoneal granulomas have been previously described. However, neither external trauma nor fistula, that could explain the superficial presence of the eggs, was found. This description reinforces the relevance of infectious diseases within the differential diagnosis of abdominal masses, particularly in areas with high prevalence of parasitic infestations

Faecal microbiota composition is related to response to CDK4/6-inhibitors in metastatic breast cancer: A prospective cross-sectional exploratory study

Background: Cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)4/6-inhibitors with endocrine therapy represent the standard of treatment of hormone receptor-positive(HR+)/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Gut microbiota seems to predict treatment response in several tumour types, being directly implied in chemotherapy resistance and development of adverse effects. No evidence is available on gut microbiota impact on efficacy of HR+ breast cancer treatment. Patients and methods: We assessed the potential association among faecal microbiota and therapeutic efficacy of CDK4/6-inhibitors on 14 MBC patients classified as responders (R) and non-responders (NR) according to progression-free survival. A stool sample was collected at baseline and V3-V4 16S targeted sequencing was employed to assess its bacterial composition. Statistical associations with R and NR were studied. Results: No significant differences were observed between R and NR in terms of α-/β-diversity at the phylum and species level. Machine-learning (ML) algorithms evidenced four bacterial species as a discriminant for R (Bifidobacterium longum, Ruminococcus callidus) and NR (Clostridium innocuum, Schaalia odontolytica), and an area under curve (AUC) of 0.946 after Random Forest modelling. Network analysis evidenced two major clusters of bacterial species, named Species Interacting Groups (SIG)1-2, with SIG1 harbouring 75% of NR-related bacterial species, and SIG2 regrouping 76% of R-related species (p < 0.001). Cross-correlations among several patients' circulating immune cells or biomarkers and bacterial species' relative abundances showed associations with potential prognostic implications. Conclusions: Our results provide initial insights into the gut microbiota involvement in sensitivity and/or resistance to CDK4/6-inhibitors + endocrine therapy in MBC. If confirmed in larger trials, several microbiota manipulation strategies might be hypothesised to improve response to CDK4/6-inhibitors. Data availability statement: All raw data (fastq.gz files) and clinical metadata, complying with FAIR principles (https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/), are available at NCBI SRA portal under PRJNA946762 Bioproject

Effectiveness of the R1-navajo embryo marker on sorting haploids in tropical maize germplasm

Modern maize breeding is currently based on Doubled Haploids (DH) technology. In following the steps to produce inbred lines by DH, sorting the haploids are the most important of them. Haploid inducers usually carry the R1 gene, responsible of purple pigmentation on seeds. Navajo is a typical phenotyping from this gene and leads to purple coloration on endosperm and embryo of the diploids but any pigmentation on haploid kernels. Aimed to analyze the effectiveness of R1-nj on sorting true haploids over tropical sources, two different experiments were conducted. In the first experiment, kernels analyzed came from the following induction cross (L47 x IL47), (P9 x IP9), (2B707 x IL47), and (2B707 x IP9) in which IL47 and IP9 were the tropical haploid inducers. In the second experiment, KHI (Krasnodar Haploid Inducer) was the haploid inducer and three commercial were adopting as sources. Putative haploids were sorted by R1-nj expression and the haploid level was checked by chromosome counting our phenotyping at the flowering stage. Overall, very low true haploid discovery rates were observed. 2B707 was the most reliable source in displaying true haploids. The ratio of this effectiveness among the two ex- periments to R1-nj marker ranged from 8.80 to 30.2%. These results can be explained by the presence of inhibitory genes on the tropical sources. Additionally, at the flowering stage, haploids plants had data of spontaneous doubling collected and summarized. Recovery on the female organs seems to be higher than male. Haploids from the IAC125 source exhibited best fully spontaneous doubling among the sources analyzed