Enhancing the emotional and social skills of the youth to promote their wellbeing and positive development: a systematic review of universal school-based randomized controlled trials

Background: The acquisition of social and emotional skills is associated with positive youth development, character education, healthy lifestyle behaviours, reduction in depression and anxiety, conduct disorders, violence, bullying, conflict, and anger. School-based interventions aimed to enhance these skills go beyond a problem-focused approach to embrace a more positive view of health; they could also improve the youth's wellbeing. Aim: To describe the main features and to establish the effectiveness of universal school-based RCTs for children and the youth, aimed to promote their psychosocial wellbeing, positive development, healthy lifestyle behaviours and/or academic performance by improving their emotional and social skills. Methods: Systematic review by searching for relevant papers in PubMed/Medline with the following key words: "mental health" OR "wellbeing" OR "health promotion" OR "emotional learning" OR "social learning" OR "emotional and social learning" OR "positive youth development" OR "life skills" OR "life skills training" AND "school". Interval was set from January 2000 to April 2014. Results: 1,984 papers were identified through the search. Out of them 22 RCTs were included. While most interventions were characterized by a whole-school approach and SAFE practices, few studies only used standardized measures to assess outcomes, or had collected follow-up data after ≥ 6 months. The results of all these trials were examined and discussed. Conclusion: Universal school-based RCTs to enhance emotional and social skills showed controversial findings, due to some methodological issues mainly. Nevertheless they show promising outcomes that are relatively far-reaching for children and youth wellbeing and therefore are important in the real worl

Tutela e progetto sulle preesistenze. Letture e confronti tra esperienze al femminile nell’Italia del dopoguerra

The contribute illustrates the results of a research on seven women architects, active during the second half of the twentieth century: Margherita Asso, Lina Bo Bardi, Cini Boeri, Graziana Del Guercio Barbato, Liliana Grassi, Franca Helg and Egle Renata Trincanato that, due to their deep inclination to architecture and to the protection of the existing heritage, have significantly contributed to the national and international post-war debate on restoration through their methodologies and projects. This study, supported by an extensive bibliographical investigation, is based on an accurate archival research useful to understand their position on the pre-existences: selected case studies show how the seven women operated in total coherence with the national debate, often anticipating new theoretical principles or rising new practical questions. In details, a summary of the relevant aspects shows their operative thinking allowing a critical reading through the study of some of their significant projects, validating their theoretical-conceptual principles. Therefore, the aim is to outline a more comprehensive panorama of the Theory of Restoration, focusing the attention on the influence offered by these female protagonists, on topics such as the protection of the historical landscape, the development of the urban restoration, the social dimension of the regeneration and the dialectic between old and new in the project on existing buildings.Il contributo illustra i risultati di una ricerca su sette donne architetti, attive nella seconda metà del XX secolo: Margherita Asso, Lina Bo Bardi, Cini Boeri, Graziana Del Guercio Barbato, Liliana Grassi, Franca Helg ed Egle Renata Trincanato che, grazie alla loro profonda propensione per l'architettura e la tutela del patrimonio esistente, hanno contribuito in modo significativo, attraverso metodologie e progetti, al dibattito nazionale e internazionale del dopoguerra sul restauro  Questo studio, supportato da un'ampia indagine bibliografica, si basa su un'accurata ricerca archivistica, utile a comprendere la loro posizione sul preesistente: casi studio selezionati mostrano come le sette professioniste hanno operato in totale coerenza con il dibattito nazionale, anticipando spesso nuovi principi teorici o nuove esigenze pratiche. Sono esposti gli aspetti più significativi del loro pensiero operativo, attraverso una lettura critica e lo studio di alcuni dei loro progetti significativi, nei quali si affermano i loro principi teorico-concettuali. L'obiettivo è quello di delineare un panorama più completo della Teoria del Restauro, focalizzando l'attenzione sull'influenza offerta da queste protagoniste femminili, su temi quali la protezione del paesaggio storico, lo sviluppo del restauro urbano, la dimensione sociale della rigenerazione e la dialettica tra vecchio e nuovo nel progetto su edifici esistenti

Quality of life in carotid atherosclerosis: The role of co-morbid mood disorders

Introduction/Objective: To study in severe carotid atherosclerosis (CA): The frequency of mood disorders (MD); the impairment of quality of life (QoL); the role of co-morbid MD in such impairment. Methods: Case-control study. Cases: consecutive in-patients with CA (stenosis ≥ 50%). Controls: subjects with no diagnosis of CA randomized from a database of a community survey. Psychiatric diagnosis according to DSM-IV made by clinicians and semi-structured interview, QoL measured by the Short Form Health Survey (SF-12). Results: This is the first study on comorbidity on CA disease and MD in which psychiatric diagnoses are conducted by clinicians according to DSM-IV diagnostic criteria. Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) (17.4% vs 2.72%, P <0.0001) but not Bipolar Disorders (BD) (4.3% vs 0.5%, P = 0.99) was higher in cases (N=46) than in controls (N= 184). SF-12 scores in cases were lower than in controls (30.56±8.12 vs 36.81±6:40; p <0.001) with QoL comparable to serious chronic diseases of the central nervous system. The burden of a concomitant MDD or BD amplifies QoL impairment. Conclusion: Comorbid MD aggravates the impairment of QoL in CA. Unlike autoimmune diseases or degenerative diseases of the Central Nervous System, CA shows a strong risk of MDD than BD

Metabolic shift toward oxidative phosphorylation in docetaxel resistant prostate cancer cells

Drug resistance of cancer cells is recognized as the primary cause of failure of chemotherapeutic treatment in most human cancers. Growing evidences support the idea that deregulated cellular metabolism is linked to such resistance. Indeed, both components of the glycolytic and mitochondrial pathways are involved in altered metabolism linked to chemoresistance of several cancers. Here we investigated the drug-induced metabolic adaptations able to confer advantages to docetaxel resistant prostate cancer (PCa) cells. We found that docetaxel-resistant PC3 cells (PC3-DR) acquire a pro-invasive behavior undergoing epithelial-to-mesenchymal-transition (EMT) and a decrease of both intracellular ROS and cell growth. Metabolic analyses revealed that PC3-DR cells have a more efficient respiratory phenotype than sensitive cells, involving utilization of glucose, glutamine and lactate by the mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). Consequently, targeting mitochondrial complex I by metformin administration, impairs proliferation and invasiveness of PC3-DR cells without effects on parental cells. Furthermore, stromal fibroblasts, which cause a "reverse Warburg" phenotype in PCa cells, reduce docetaxel toxicity in both sensitive and resistant PCa cells. However, re-expression of miR-205, a microRNA strongly down-regulated in EMT and associated to docetaxel resistance, is able to shift OXPHOS to a Warburg metabolism, thereby resulting in an elevated docetaxel toxicity in PCa cells. Taken together, these findings suggest that resistance to docetaxel induces a shift from Warburg to OXPHOS, mandatory for conferring a survival advantage to resistant cells, suggesting that impairing such metabolic reprogramming could be a successful therapeutic approach.Associazione Italiana Ricerca sul Cancro (AIRC), Istituto Toscano Tumori and Regione Toscan

Inflammatory Indices during and after a Randomized Controlled Trial on Exercise in Old Adults: Could Moderate-intensity Exercise be Safe Enough? (Active Elderly and Health – Clinicaltrials.Gov, NCT03858114)

Background: Aging is characterized by a progressive increase in chronic diseases. According to WHO’s guidance, there is a need to develop strategies to monitor, maintain and rehabilitate the health of older people. The present research aims to elucidate whether or not a moderate physical activity intervention in older adults can cause an increase in inflammatory biomarker indices such as C-reactive Protein (CRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). It is a valuable tool for promoting health that can be considered tolerable in the over-65 population. Methods: 120 males and females over 65 years of age participated in a randomized controlled trial (RCT NCT03858114) in two groups of 60 individuals of similar size and underwent moderate physical activity or cultural and recreational activities. The exclusion criteria were being younger than 65 years old, being unable to participate in physical activity for medical reasons, and a Body Mass Index of greater than 35. Blood samples from participants were collected for the pre-treatment period (t0), at the end of the study of 12 weeks (t1), and 20 weeks after the end of the study (t2) for measurement of inflammatory indices CRP and ESR. Results: The commonly routine tests for inflammatory reactions (ERS and CPR) showed no change at the end of an RCT on mild-to-moderate exercise. Conclusion: The results on inflammatory indices confirm the safety of this type of intervention and encourage its long-term use and testin

Principal Component Analysis of the Social and Behavioral Rhythms Scale in elderly

Background: Changes in social and behavioral rhythms (SBR) in elderly are related to health status. Nevertheless, there is no data on factor analysis of the Brief Social Rhythm Scale (BSRS) an internationally well-known tool in this field. The aim was to analyze, in elderly, the factorial structure of the Italian version of BSRS.Design and Methods: Principal Component Analysis of the BSRS carried out in elderly living at home.Results:&nbsp;Sample of 141 participants (83 Females, 58,9%), aged 72.3±4.8. All the items of the questionnaire were related and could compose a single factor, explaining 56% of variance. A solution adopting two factors, the first (including items 1,2,3,4,9,10), the second (including items 5,6,7,8), covered cumulatively 78.8% of the variance.Conclusion:&nbsp;The study confirms that the BSRS is consistent with the idea for which it was built and can be useful for the study of regularity of SBR in old adults

Effect of a Low-Moderate Exercise Program on Dysmetabolism in Older Adults: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial

Physical exercise has been shown to improve dysmetabolism in older adults, reducing cardiovascular risk, while its role in preventing dysmetabolism is less known. Moreover, most of the trials use exercise programs that are difficult to put into daily practice. The purpose of this Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) was to evaluate the effectiveness of a 3-month moderate exercise program in improving or preventing dysmetabolism in 120 older adults, randomly selected for the exercise program (experimental group) or cultural activities (control group). None of the subjects were following a hypocaloric diet, and all of them reported healthy eating habits. Anthropometric (Body Mass Index (BMI) and Waist Circumference (WC)) and metabolic variables (fasting plasma glucose (FPG), High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (HDL-C), and triglycerides (TG)) were assessed at baseline (T0) and at the end of the trial (T1). Dysmetabolism was defined by the presence of an increased WC plus at least two metabolic alterations. At T0, the two groups did not differ by sex, age, education, BMI, WC, FPG, HDL-C levels, and prevalence of dysmetabolism. The mean BMI value indicated overweight, and WC values were higher than the cut-off. At T1, a slight reduction in the number of people with dysmetabolism was found only in the experimental group. However, none of the individuals without dysmetabolism at T0 in the experimental group developed it at T1, while 11.4% developed it in the control group (p = 0.032). This study highlights that a moderate exercise program, accessible in daily practice, can prevent dysmetabolism in older adults, even while being overweight, while if dysmetabolism is already present, more prolonged combined nutritional and exercise interventions will be needed

Exercise Improves the Impact of Chronic Pain in Older Adults: Results of an RCT

Background: Chronic Pain (CP) is a crucial determinant for disability in older adults. CP amplifies the impact of other common age-related diseases and increases cardiovascular risk. Physical exercise can improve CP. Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) with high-intensity exercise in older adults excluded people with Moderate Chronic Illness (MCI) and CP. Objective: This study aimed at evaluating in an RCT whether moderate exercise training can improve chronic pain in a sample of older adults, including people with MCI, and if any modification persists over time. Methods: A sample of 120 older adults was randomly selected for a moderate-intensity exercise program or cultural activities (control group). Chronic pain was assessed at t0, at t12 (end of the trial), and t48 weeks, by means of the Italian version of the SIP-Roland Scale. Results: Seventy-nine participants completed the follow-up (age 72.3±4.7, women 55.3%). At the end of RCT, an improvement in the SIP scale score was found in the exercise group (p=0.035), showing a lower score than the control group; this difference was not maintained at 48 weeks (p=0.235). Conclusion: Our study highlighted that a moderate-intensity exercise intervention reduced chronic pain in older adults, but this effect disappeared at follow-up after 36 weeks from the end of the training program. These findings suggested that such kinds of programs, easily accessible to old people even with MCI, should be implemented and supported over time, thus promoting active aging and preventing CP of age-related diseases. Clinical Trial Registration: Clinical.Trials.gov.NCT03858114

Active elderly and health-can moderate exercise improve health and wellbeing in older adults? Protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Abstract Background: Aging is marked by a progressive rise in chronic diseases with an impact on social and healthcare costs. Physical activity (PA) may soothe the inconveniences related to chronic diseases, has positive effects on the quality of life and biological rhythms, and can prevent the decline in motor functions and the consequent falls, which are associated with early death and disability in older adults. Methods: We randomized 120 over-65 males and females into groups of similar size and timing and will give each either moderate physical activity or cultural and recreational activities. Being younger than 65 years, inability to participate in physical activity for any medical reason, and involvement in a massive program of physical exercise are the exclusion criteria. The primary outcome measures are quality of life, walking speed, and postural sway. Participants are tested at baseline, post-treatment, and 6-month (24 weeks) and 12-month (48 weeks) follow-ups. Discussion: This study aims at improving the quality of life, wellness, and cognitive functioning in the elderly through a low-cost affordable program of moderate physical activity. Given the growing aging of the world population and the social and economic burden of disability in the elderly, our results might have a major impact on future practices