Italian Biomedical Scientific Web Site quality Evaluation

Due to the uncontrolled spread of new biomedical Web Sites, it becomes essential for the scientific community to make possible the evaluation of the quality and reliance of the online information repository content. The Internet, so far, undoubtedly represents a democratic and free accessible information system, it gives the same importance to everyone who has something to communicate, share or just sell, without any distinction between scientifically sound resources and the others. Often computer graphics and free access are guaranteed but not the information content: texts are not certificated and no references are furnished. In most of the cases it is impossible to know the authors, the issues, the bibliographical references, and the updating frequence as well. This also happens even in Web Sites usually read by doctors, researchers (or even patients) that need to know how to approach to serious topics, such as diseases, new therapies or pharmacological treatments. At the moment, just a few examples of organizations devoted to the Web site certification are avaliable. One of them is the HON Fondation which, after the evaluation of some basic caracteristics of the Wed site, gives "quality marks" stating if it can be considered as an affordable information source. From this standpoint this paper has the aim to develop a methodology in order to evaluate the scientific quality of the Web sites in biomedical area (human and animal health). This methodology was setted up through a qualitative analysis of web sites of the main Italian Scientific Societies and Associations. After the selection of the web resources through a research carried out on the most important net spiders (Scirus, Google, Altavista), each site was analyzed through an "Evaluation Questionnaire1" based on the criteria previously adopted by scientific organizations such as HON, DISCERN, and IZSUM. Results have been interpreted and discussed

Machine Learning and MADIT methodology for the fake news identification: the persuasion index

[EN] The phenomenon of fake news has grown concurrently with the rise of social networks that allow people to directly access news without the mediation of reliable sources. Recognizing news as fake is a difficult task for humans, and even tougher for a machine. This proposal aims to redesign the problem: from a check of truthfulness of news content, to the analysis of texts’ persuasion level. That is how information is introduced to the reader, assuming that fake news is aimed at persuading towards the reality of sense they intend to convey. M.A.D.I.T. methodology has been chosen. It is useful to describe how texts are built, overcoming the content/structure analysis level and stressing the study of Discursive Repertories: discursive modalities of reality of sense building, classified into real and fake news categories thanks to the Machine learning application. For the dataset building 7,387 news have been analysed. The results highlight different profiles of text building between the two groups: the different and typical discursive repertories allow to validate the methodological approach as a good predictor of the persuasion level of texts, not only of news, but also of information in domains such as the economic financial one (e.g. GameStop event).Orrù, L.; Moro, C.; Cuccarini, M.; Paita, M.; Dalla Riva, MS.; Bassi, D.; Da San Martino, G.... (2022). Machine Learning and MADIT methodology for the fake news identification: the persuasion index. En 4th International Conference on Advanced Research Methods and Analytics (CARMA 2022). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 165-172. https://doi.org/10.4995/CARMA2022.2022.1508116517

Critical Competences for the Management of Post-Operative Course in Patients with Digestive Tract Cancer: The Contribution of MADIT Methodology for a Nine-Month Longitudinal Study

There is a high postoperative morbidity rate after cancer surgery, that impairs patients' self-management, job condition and economic strength. This paper describes the results of a peculiar psychological intervention on patients undergoing surgery for esophageal, gastric and colorectal cancer. The intervention aimed to enhance patients' competences in the management of postoperative daily life. A narrative approach (M.A.D.I.T.-Methodology for the Analysis of Computerised Text Data) was used to create a questionnaire, Health and Employment after Gastro-Intestinal Surgery-Dialogical Questionnaire, HEAGIS-DQ, that assesses four competences. It was administered to 48 participants. Results were used as guidance for specific intervention, structured on patients' competence profiles. The intervention lasted nine months after surgery and was structured in weekly to monthly therapeutic sessions. Quality of Life questionnaires were administered too. At the end of the intervention, 94% of patients maintained their job and only 10% of patients asked for financial support. The mean self-perception of health-related quality of life was 71.2. The distribution of three of four competences increased after nine months (p < 0.05). Despite economic difficulties due to lasting symptoms after surgery, and to the current pandemic scenario, a structured intervention with patients let them to resume their jobs and continue activities after surgery

Managing the Consequences of Oncological Major Surgery: A Short- and Medium-Term Skills Assessment Proposal for Patient and Caregiver through M.A.D.I.T. Methodology

The effects of cancer surgery and treatment harm patients' life and working ability: major causes of this can be intensified by the postoperative symptoms. This study, the first part of the HEAGIS project (Health and Employment after Gastrointestinal Surgery), proposes a method to assess patients and caregivers' competences in dealing with postoperative course and the related needs to improve the adequate competences. In this observational study, an ad hoc structured interview was conducted with 47 patients and 15 caregivers between the third and fifteenth postoperative day. Oesophageal (38%), esophagogastric junction (13%), gastric (30%), colon (8%) and rectum (11%) cancer patients were considered. Computerized textual data analysis methodology was used to identify levels of competences. Text analysis highlighted three different levels (low, medium and high) of four specific types of patients and caregivers' competences. In particular, the overall trend of the preview of future scenarios and use of resource competences was low. Less critical were situation evaluation and preview repercussion of own actions' competences. Caregivers' trends were similar. The Kruskal-Wallis test did not distinguish any differences in the level of competences related to the characteristics of the participants. Patients and caregivers are not accurate in planning the future after surgery, using personal beliefs rather than referring to physicians, and not recognizing adequate resources. The medium-low competences' trend leads to unexpected critical situations, and patients could not deal with them in a maximally effective way. Both patients and caregivers should be taken over by healthcare professionals to improve patients' competences and make the curative surgery effective in daily life

Association studies of up to 1.2 million individuals yield new insights into the genetic etiology of tobacco and alcohol use

Tobacco and alcohol use are leading causes of mortality that influence risk for many complex diseases and disorders 1 . They are heritable 2,3 and etiologically related 4,5 behaviors that have been resistant to gene discovery efforts 6–11 . In sample sizes up to 1.2 million individuals, we discovered 566 genetic variants in 406 loci associated with multiple stages of tobacco use (initiation, cessation, and heaviness) as well as alcohol use, with 150 loci evidencing pleiotropic association. Smoking phenotypes were positively genetically correlated with many health conditions, whereas alcohol use was negatively correlated with these conditions, such that increased genetic risk for alcohol use is associated with lower disease risk. We report evidence for the involvement of many systems in tobacco and alcohol use, including genes involved in nicotinic, dopaminergic, and glutamatergic neurotransmission. The results provide a solid starting point to evaluate the effects of these loci in model organisms and more precise substance use measures

Genetic diversity fuels gene discovery for tobacco and alcohol use

Tobacco and alcohol use are heritable behaviours associated with 15% and 5.3% of worldwide deaths, respectively, due largely to broad increased risk for disease and injury(1-4). These substances are used across the globe, yet genome-wide association studies have focused largely on individuals of European ancestries(5). Here we leveraged global genetic diversity across 3.4 million individuals from four major clines of global ancestry (approximately 21% non-European) to power the discovery and fine-mapping of genomic loci associated with tobacco and alcohol use, to inform function of these loci via ancestry-aware transcriptome-wide association studies, and to evaluate the genetic architecture and predictive power of polygenic risk within and across populations. We found that increases in sample size and genetic diversity improved locus identification and fine-mapping resolution, and that a large majority of the 3,823 associated variants (from 2,143 loci) showed consistent effect sizes across ancestry dimensions. However, polygenic risk scores developed in one ancestry performed poorly in others, highlighting the continued need to increase sample sizes of diverse ancestries to realize any potential benefit of polygenic prediction.Peer reviewe

Pupils' inclusion as a process of narrative interactions: tackling ADHD typification through MADIT methodology

Abstract Background ADHD is the most common childhood neurodevelopmental disorder. The symptomatology makes the management of ADHD particularly demanding in school, so teachers’ training programs have been widely implemented. Nevertheless, these interventions could lead teachers to concentrate on the dysfunctional elements of these students, exposing them to the risk of stigmatisation. Conceptualising stigma and inclusion as narrative processes, the present study observed how teacher ADHD training texts, endorsed by the Italian government, impact on the inclusion process of students. Methods The research analysed a corpus of N = 31,261 text occurrences and focused on three areas: (1) ADHD as a clinical condition; (2) the impact of ADHD characteristics in the scholastic setting; (3) interventions to manage ADHD criticalities in school settings. To observe the interactive processes fostered by the narratives under scrutiny, we used Dialogic Science and MADIT methodology, since they allow us to measure the language use modalities through an index: the Dialogical Weight (dW). The value of dW ranges between 0.1 (min) and 0.9 (max) and is linked to the potential outcomes of inclusion for students with ADHD. A low dW accounts for narratives entrenched in personal beliefs presented as absolute truths, undermining inclusion of students with ADHD. In contrast, high dW signals language interaction relying on sharable elements, able to foster social unity and diminish stigma. Results The results yielded a critical discursive configuration, both in general and for the three distinct areas. We measured an overall Dialogical Weight of 0.4dW and, for the three areas (1) = 0.3dW; (2) = 0.3dW; (3) = 0.4dW. The analysed text does not maximise the triggering of inclusive interactions, as they rely on individual references and present one’s narrative as the sole plausible perspective: reinforcing already existing positions and exposing to the risk of stereotyping of the pupils. Conclusions The study highlighted how the ADHD training materials analysed, focusing on a purely informational and clinical approach, lose in effectiveness with respect to generating inclusive school settings. Finally, to promote the inclusion of these pupils, elements are offered for outlining an approach based on fostering active participation by all roles involved