Rural Women's Empowerment through Employment from the Beijing Platform for Action Onwards

This article provides a critical analysis of the conceptualisation of women's empowerment through employment (and later decent work) from the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Beijing Platform for Action through to the Millennium Development Goals, the Decent Work Agenda and current proposals for the post?2015 Development Agenda. The article focuses on the context of rural women. Through a historical overview of the increasing importance placed on employment and the ‘world of work’ for poverty reduction and women's empowerment within the development discourse, the article analyses the implications and gaps of prevailing approaches. The article also provides recommendations to enhance the potential of rural employment and decent work in promoting women's empowerment, including with specific reference to the debates around the post?2015 Development Agenda

Microsoft Word - ICARRD input paper Agricultural Labour.doc

Draft -Please do not cite. Most often agricultural workers and labourers have not been favourably considered in and benefited by land reform processes, while this adds to their marginalisation and it is also one of the reasons why land reform is not always successful in terms of poverty reduction. This paper examines the extent to which agricultural workers/labour are stakeholders in land reform, drawing conclusions from case study illustrations and theoretical literature about the ways different land reform processes impact on agricultural workers/labour. By paying adequate attention to this significant group of poor and vulnerable people, and ensuring provision of appropriate complementary inputs and services, land reform processes can effect poverty reduction by protecting property rights, improving productivity and conditions of labour and contributing to sustainable rural development

Koolen-de Vries Syndrome: Preliminary Observations of Topiramate Efficacy

We describe the case of a baby-girl affected by the Koolen-de Vries syndrome (KdVS), with epilepsy. Our patient has microdeletions in the 17q21.31 region (array CGH). Therapy with Levetiracetam showed a relatively lack of efficacy, while adding a low dose of Topiramate in the therapy allowed the complete seizures control. KdVS is a rare syndrome and its epilepsy features and seizures treatment are not well known by pediatric neurologists. However, with broader use of array CGH, an increasing number of cases are likely to be identified and their description, including response to specific medications, can facilitate recognition and treatment. The complex treatment of epilepsy should be part of the global management and counseling in these composite patients

Comorbidity prevalence and treatment outcome in children and adolescents with ADHD

Although ADHD comorbidity has been widely studied, some issues remain unsolved. This multicenter observational study aims to examine comorbid psychiatric disorders in a clinical sample of newly diagnosed, treatment na\uc3\uafve children and adolescents with and without ADHD and, to compare treatment efficacy based on the type of comorbidity. We performed an analysis of the medical records of patients identified from the Regional ADHD Registry database, enrolled in 18 ADHD centers in the 2011\ue2\u80\u932016 period. 1919 of 2861 subjects evaluated (67%) met the diagnostic criteria for ADHD: 650 (34%) had only ADHD, while 1269 (66%) had at least one comorbid psychiatric disorder (learning disorders, 56%; sleep disorders, 23%; oppositional defiant disorder, 20%; anxiety disorders, 12%). Patients with ADHD of combined type and with severe impairment (CGI-S \ue2\u89\ua55) were more likely to present comorbidity. 382 of 724 (53%) followed up patients improved after 1 year of treatment. ADHD with comorbidity showed greater improvement when treated with combined interventions or methylphenidate alone. Specifically, combined treatment showed significant superiority for ADHD with learning disorders (ES 0.66) and ODD (ES 0.98), lower for ADHD with sleep or anxiety disorders. Training intervention alone showed only medium efficacy (ES 0.50) for ADHD and learning disorders. This study was the first describing comorbidity patterns of ADHD in Italy, confirming, in a multicenter clinical setting, that ADHD is more often a complex disorder. Findings highlight important diagnostic, therapeutic, and service organization aspects that should be broadly extended to ensure an appropriate and homogenous ADHD management

Analysis of ACE2 Genetic Variability among Populations Highlights a Possible Link with COVID-19-Related Neurological Complications

Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) has been recognized as the entry receptor of the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2). Structural and sequence variants in ACE2 gene may affect its expression in different tissues and determine a differential response to SARS-Cov-2 infection and the COVID-19-related phenotype. The present study investigated the genetic variability of ACE2 in terms of single nucleotide variants (SNVs), copy number variations (CNVs), and expression quantitative loci (eQTLs) in a cohort of 268 individuals representative of the general Italian population. The analysis identified five SNVs (rs35803318, rs41303171, rs774469453, rs773676270, and rs2285666) in the Italian cohort. Of them, rs35803318 and rs2285666 displayed a significant different frequency distribution in the Italian population with respect to worldwide population. The eQTLs analysis located in and targeting ACE2 revealed a high distribution of eQTL variants in different brain tissues, suggesting a possible link between ACE2 genetic variability and the neurological complications in patients with COVID-19. Further research is needed to clarify the possible relationship between ACE2 expression and the susceptibility to neurological complications in patients with COVID-19. In fact, patients at higher risk of neurological involvement may need different monitoring and treatment strategies in order to prevent severe, permanent brain injury

Headache and Comorbidity in Children and Adolescents

Headache is one of the most common neurological symptom reported in childhood and adolescence, leading to high levels of school absences and being associated with several comorbid conditions, particularly in neurological, psychiatric and cardiovascular systems. Neurological and psychiatric disorders, that are associated with migraine, are mainly depression, anxiety disorders, epilepsy and sleep disorders, ADHD and Tourette syndrome. It also has been shown an association with atopic disease and cardiovascular disease, especially ischemic stroke and patent foramen ovale (PFO)