Screening for type 1 diabetes-, thyroid-, gastric-, and adrenal-specific humoral autoimmunity in 529 children and adolescents with celiac disease at diagnosis identifies as positive one in every nine patients

No abstract availabl

The MASSIMO system for the safeguarding of historic buildings in a seismic area: operationally-oriented platforms

In this paper, the non-invasive system MASSIMO is presented for the monitoring and the seismic vulnerability mitigation of the cultural heritage. It integrates ground-based, airborne and space-borne remote sensing tools with geophysical and in situ surveys to provide the multi-spatial (regional, urban and building scales) and multi-temporal (long-term, short-term, near-real-time and real-time scales) monitoring of test areas and buildings. The measurements are integrated through web-based GIS and 3D visual platforms to support decision-making stakeholders involved in urban planning and structural requalification. An application of this system is presented over the Calabria region for the town of Cosenza and a test historical complex

The Development of Spatial Memory Analyzed by means of Ecological Walking Task

The present study is aimed at investigating the development of spatial memory in pre-school children aged 4-6 years using an ecological walking task with multiple rewards. The participants were to explore an open space in order to find nine rewards placed in buckets arranged in three spatial configurations: a Cross, a 3x3 Matrix and a Cluster composed of three groups of three buckets each. Clear age-related improvements were evident in all the parameters analysed. In fact, there was a general trend for younger children to display worse performances than the older ones. Moreover, males performed better than females in both the search efficiency and visiting all buckets. Additionally, the search efficiency proved to be a function of the difficulty of the configuration to be explored: the Matrix and Cluster configurations were easier to explore than the Cross configuration. Taken altogether, the present findings suggest that there is a general improvement in the spatial memory abilities in preschoolers, and that solving an open space task could be influenced by gender. Moreover, it can be proposed that both the procedural competences and the memory load requested to explore a specific environment are determined by its specific features

The Monitoring of Urban Environments and Built-Up Structures in a Seismic Area: Web-Based GIS Mapping and 3D Visualization Tools for the Assessment of the Urban Resources

In this paper, a non-invasive infrastructural system called MASSIMO is presented for the monitoring and the seismic vulnerability mitigation of cultural heritages. It integrates ground-based, airborne and space-borne remote sensing tools with geophysical and in situ surveys to provide a multi-spatial (regional, urban and building scales) and multi-temporal (longterm, short-term and near-real-time scales) monitoring of test areas and buildings. The measurements are integrated through web-based Geographic Information System (GIS) and 3-dimensional visual platforms to support decision-making stakeholders involved in urban and structural requalification planning. An application of this system is presented over the Calabria region for the town of Cosenza and a test historical complex.The present work is supported and funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) under the research project PON01-02710 "MASSIMO" - "Monitoraggio in Area Sismica di SIstemi MOnumentali".Published9-134T. Sismologia, geofisica e geologia per l'ingegneria sismicaN/A or not JC

Knowledge about tuberculosis among undergraduate health care students in 15 Italian universities: a cross-sectional study

Background: The Italian Study Group on Hospital Hygiene of the Italian Society of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Public Health conducted a multicentre survey aiming to evaluate undergraduate health care students’ knowledge of tuberculosis and tuberculosis control measures in Italy. Methods: In October 2012–June 2013, a sample of medical and nursing students from 15 Italian universities were enrolled on a voluntary basis and asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire investigating both general knowledge of tuberculosis (aetiology, clinical presentation, outcome, screening methods) and personal experiences and practices related to tuberculosis prevention. Data were analysed through multivariable regression using Stata software. Results: The sample consisted of 2,220 students in nursing (72.6%) and medicine (27.4%) courses. Our findings clearly showed that medical students had a better knowledge of tuberculosis than did nursing students. Although the vast majority of the sample (up to 95%) answered questions about tuberculosis aetiology correctly, only 60% of the students gave the correct responses regarding clinical aspects and vaccine details. Overall, 66.9% of the students had been screened for tuberculosis, but less than 20% of those with a negative result on the tuberculin skin test were vaccinated. Multivariable regression analysis showed that age and type of study programme (nursing vs. medical course) were determinants of answering the questions correctly. Conclusions: Although our data showed sufficient knowledge on tuberculosis, this survey underlines the considerable need for improvement in knowledge about the disease, especially among nursing students. In light of the scientific recommendations concerning tuberculosis knowledge among students, progress of current health care curricula aimed to develop students’ skills in this field is needed.</br

Bollettino Sismico Italiano: Analisys of Early Aftershocks of the 2016 MW 6.0 Amatrice, MW 5.9 Visso and MW 6.5 Norcia earthquakes in Central Italy

The Amatrice-Visso-Norcia seismic sequence is the most important of the last 30 years in Italy. The seismic sequence started on 24 August, 2016 and still is ongoing in central Apennines. At the end of February 2017 more than 57,000 events were located, 80,000 events up to the end of September 2017 (Fig. 1). The mainshocks of the sequence occurred on 24 August 2016 (Mw 6.0 and Mw 5.4), 26 October 2016 (Mw 5.4 and Mw 5.9), 30 October 2016 (Mw 6.5), 18 January 2017 (four earthquakes Mw≥ 5.0). In this seismic sequence, all the waveforms recorded by temporary stations deployed by the SISMIKO emergency group (stations T12**; Moretti et al., 2016) where available in real- time at the surveillance room of INGV. Because of the high level of seismicity and the dense seismic network installed in the region, more than 150 events per day were located at the end of February 2017; still 60 events per day were located up to the end of August 2017.The Amatrice-Visso-Norcia is the most important seismic sequence since 2015, the time when the analysis procedures of the BSI group (Bollettino Sismico Italiano) were revised (Nardi et al., 2015). BSI is now available every four months on the web: bulletins contain revised earthquakes (location and magnitude) with ML≥ 1.5, quasi-real time revision of ML≥ 3.5 earthquakes and phase arrivals from waveforms recorded on seismic stations available from the European Integrated Data Archive (EIDA), (Mazza et al., 2012). These last procedures allow the integration of signals from temporary seismic stations (Moretti et al., 2014) installed by the emergency group SISMIKO (Moretti and Sismiko working group, 2016), even when they are not in real time transmission, if they are rapidly archived in EIDA, together with real time signals from the seismic stations of the permanent INGV network. The analysis strategy of the BSI group for the Amatrice -Visso - Norcia seismic sequence (AVN.s.s in the following) was to select the earthquakes located in the box with min/max latitude: 42.2/43.2 - and min/max longitude: 12.4/14.1 to prepare a special volume of BSI on the seismic sequence.PublishedTrieste, Italy1SR. TERREMOTI - Servizi e ricerca per la Societ

Identification of uPAR-positive Chemoresistant Cells in Small Cell Lung Cancer

BACKGROUND: The urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) and its receptor (uPAR/CD87) are major regulators of extracellular matrix degradation and are involved in cell migration and invasion under physiological and pathological conditions. The uPA/uPAR system has been of great interest in cancer research because it is involved in the development of most invasive cancer phenotypes and is a strong predictor of poor patient survival. However, little is known about the role of uPA/uPAR in small cell lung cancer (SCLC), the most aggressive type of lung cancer. We therefore determined whether uPA and uPAR are involved in generation of drug resistant SCLC cell phenotype. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We screened six human SCLC cell lines for surface markers for putative stem and cancer cells. We used fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS), fluorescence microscopy and clonogenic assays to demonstrate uPAR expression in a subpopulation of cells derived from primary and metastatic SCLC cell lines. Cytotoxic assays were used to determine the sensitivity of uPAR-positive and uPAR-negative cells to chemotherapeutic agents. The uPAR-positive cells in all SCLC lines demonstrated multi-drug resistance, high clonogenic activity and co-expression of CD44 and MDR1, putative cancer stem cell markers. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that uPAR-positive cells may define a functionally important population of cancer cells in SCLC, which are resistant to traditional chemotherapies, and could serve as critical targets for more effective therapeutic interventions in SCLC

Knowledge about tuberculosis among undergraduate health care students in 15 Italian universities: a cross-sectional study

Background: The Italian Study Group on Hospital Hygiene of the Italian Society of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Public Health conducted a multicentre survey aiming to evaluate undergraduate health care students' knowledge of tuberculosis and tuberculosis control measures in Italy. Methods. In October 2012-June 2013, a sample of medical and nursing students from 15 Italian universities were enrolled on a voluntary basis and asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire investigating both general knowledge of tuberculosis (aetiology, clinical presentation, outcome, screening methods) and personal experiences and practices related to tuberculosis prevention. Data were analysed through multivariable regression using Stata software. Results: The sample consisted of 2,220 students in nursing (72.6%) and medicine (27.4%) courses. Our findings clearly showed that medical students had a better knowledge of tuberculosis than did nursing students.Although the vast majority of the sample (up to 95%) answered questions about tuberculosis aetiology correctly, only 60% of the students gave the correct responses regarding clinical aspects and vaccine details. Overall, 66.9% of the students had been screened for tuberculosis, but less than 20% of those with a negative result on the tuberculin skin test were vaccinated. Multivariable regression analysis showed that age and type of study programme (nursing vs. medical course) were determinants of answering the questions correctly. Conclusions: Although our data showed sufficient knowledge on tuberculosis, this survey underlines the considerable need for improvement in knowledge about the disease, especially among nursing students. In light of the scientific recommendations concerning tuberculosis knowledge among students, progress of current health care curricula aimed to develop students' skills in this field is needed

Bollettino Sismico Italiano gennaio – aprile 2019

Nel periodo che va dal 1 gennaio al 30 aprile 2019, gli analisti del BSI hanno revisionato tutti gli eventi di magnitudo M≥1.5, mentre i parametri dei terremoti di magnitudo inferiore a tale soglia di revisione sono stati calcolati in tempo reale, nella sala di sorveglianza sismica di Roma.Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia - Dipartimento di Protezione CivilePublished4IT. Banche dat

Bollettino Sismico Italiano gennaio – aprile 2018

Nel primo quadrimestre 2018 si sono verificati in Italia cinque eventi di magnitudo superiore o uguale a 4.0, di cui nessuno di magnitudo superiore a 5.0. Due di essi, avvenuti il 4 (MW 4.0) e il 10 aprile (MW 4.6), hanno interessato la zona della sequenza dell’Italia centrale, in provincia di Macerata. Un terremoto di magnitudo MW 4.3 è avvenuto in provincia di Campobasso, il 25 aprile, ad una profondità di 29 km. Infine due terremoti profondi, avvenuti il 12 febbraio (ML 4.4, con profondità di 379 km) e il 7 marzo (ML 4.0, con profondità di 294 km), hanno interessato il Tirreno Meridionale, al largo della costa calabra.Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia - Dipartimento di Protezione CivilePublished4IT. Banche dat