THE POTENTIAL OF PHYSIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS USING ELECTROMYOGRAPHY IN THE DESIGN OF MOTORCYCLES

Two-wheel vehicle comfort is usually assessed by means of subjective scorings or by measuring physical quantities such as acceleration, sound pressure, etc. which do not depend on the human response. This study has chosen a different approach, which is to use electromyography for evaluating the levels of muscle activity. It focuses more specifically on comfort in relation to aerodynamic loads. The loads were simulated by a wind tunnel. ANOVA statistical analysis was used to establish the impact of aerodynamic loads and of various motorcycle models on muscle activity levels. The results showed that aerodynamic loads generally cause an increase of muscle activity, although their impact varies in relation to the design of the motorcycle: each model ofmotorcycle produces a specific distribution of activity levels among muscles. The methodology can be used for vehicle-design purposes as well as organising motorbike training programmes.Keywords: Motorcycle; Aerodynamic loads; SEM; Ergonomics; Comfor

Somatic disorders and antidepressant use in suicides: A population-based study from the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, Italy, 2003-2013

Background: Many somatic disorders are complicated by depression and increase the risk of suicide. Little is known about whether antidepressants might reduce the suicidal risk in patients with somatic disorders. Methods: Data on diagnoses and antidepressant prescriptions were derived from the Social and Health Information System of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region. Cases were all suicides that occurred in the region during the years 2003\u20132013 and were sex- and age-matched to controls from the general population. Conditional logistic regression analysis was used to assess the association between suicide and somatic disorders. Results: The suicide rate in Friuli Venezia Giulia decreased from 11.3 to 10.7 per 100,000 inhabitants during the years 2003\u20132013, however patients with somatic disorder had a three times increased risk of suicide. Elderly somatic patients' suicide risk was twice as high as younger patients. The risk increased from 2.6 to 9.8 times as the number of comorbid disorders increased from 1 to 4 and over. Although no significant risk of suicide in patients with somatic disorders was found when patients were adherent to antidepressants, only 11.5% of the suicides was adherent in the year prior to death. Conclusions: Medical illnesses and underlying depressive symptoms may have a synergy effect on the risk of suicide, particularly in older patients and in patients with multiple morbidities. Since medically ill subjects adherent to antidepressants did not showa significant risk of suicide, early identification and adequate treatment of depression in somatic patients should be considered in order to prevent suicide

Views of Mental Health Professionals on Positive Changes in Service Practices and Staff-User Relationships After One Year of Covid-19 Pandemic in Italy

Abstract This study explored views of mental health services (MHS) professionals regarding positive changes in service practices and organizations, and staff-user relationships after one year of COVID19 in Italy. Professionals from a community-oriented MHS completed online the Questionnaire on MHS Transformations during the COVID-19 pandemic, a 30-item tool developed by a participatory approach and validated. Of the 184 participants, 91.8% felt it was ‘‘true/definitely true’’ that during the pandemic they had informed users on procedures to reduce contagion risks, and 82.1% stated that they had increased telephone contact with users. Sixty-nine percent of professionals reported that staff revised treatment plans according to new needs of care and 78.6% stated that they had been able to mediate between user needs and safe working procedures. Moreover, 79.4% of respondents stated that they had rediscovered the importance of gestures and habits, and 65% that they had gained strength among colleagues to face fear. Fifty-four percent of participants admitted that they had discovered unexpected personal resources in users. Overall, 59.6% of participants stated that they found some positives in the COVID-19 experience. Perceived positive changes was greater among professionals from community facilities vs. those from hospital and residential facilities. In community-oriented MHS, the pandemic offered an opportunity to change practices and rethink the meaning of relationships between people. This data may be useful in generating a more balanced understanding of COVID-19’s impact on MHS and for MHS planning in the pandemic era

Evaluation of the Interplay between the ADAR Editome and Immunotherapy in Melanoma.

RNA editing is a highly conserved posttranscriptional mechanism that contributes to transcriptome diversity. In mammals, it includes nucleobase deaminations that convert cytidine (C) into uridine (U) and adenosine (A) into inosine (I). Evidence from cancer studies indicates that RNA-editing enzymes promote certain mechanisms of tumorigenesis. On the other hand, recoding editing in mRNA can generate mutations in proteins that can participate in the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) ligandome and can therefore be recognized by the adaptive immune system. Anti-cancer treatment based on the administration of immune checkpoint inhibitors enhance these natural anti-cancer immune responses. Based on RNA-Seq datasets, we evaluated the editome of melanoma cell lines generated from patients pre- and post-immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Our results reveal a differential editing in Arthrobacter luteus (Alu) sequences between samples pre-therapy and relapses during therapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors. These data pave the way towards the development of new diagnostics and therapies targeted to editing that could help in preventing relapses during immunotherapies

Lipofection with Synthetic mRNA as a Simple Method for T-Cell Immunomonitoring.

The quantification of T-cell immune responses is crucial for the monitoring of natural and treatment-induced immunity, as well as for the validation of new immunotherapeutic approaches. The present study presents a simple method based on lipofection of synthetic mRNA in mononuclear cells as a method to determine in vitro T-cell responses. We compared several commercially available transfection reagents for their potential to transfect mRNA into human peripheral blood mononuclear cells and murine splenocytes. We also investigated the impact of RNA modifications in improving this method. Our results demonstrate that antigen-specific T-cell immunomonitoring can be easily and quickly performed by simple lipofection of antigen-coding mRNA in complex immune cell populations. Thus, our work discloses a convenient solution for the in vitro monitoring of natural or therapy-induced T-cell immune responses

Enhancement of antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity is associated with treatment response to extracorporeal photopheresis in Sézary syndrome.

Sézary syndrome (SS) is a rare, leukemic type of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL), for which extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) is a first-line therapy. Reliable biomarkers to objectively monitor the response to ECP in patients with SS are missing. We examined the quantitative and qualitative impact of ECP on natural killer (NK) cell activity in SS patients, and especially their functional ability for antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC). Further, we addressed the question whether the magnitude of the effect on ADCC can be associated with the anti-cancer efficacy of ECP in SS patients. We assessed numbers of NK cells, ADCC activity, and treatment response based on blood tumor staging in a cohort of 13 SS patients (8 women, 5 men) treated with ECP as a first-line therapy. Blood samples were collected before treatment start and after an average of 9 months of uninterrupted ECP treatment. NK cell numbers were reduced in SS patients compared to healthy individuals and showed a tendency of recovery after long-term ECP treatment, independent of the clinical response to treatment. Patients with marginal increase (≤1.5 AU-fold) or lack of increase in ADCC activity failed to respond clinically to treatment, while patients with an increased ADCC activity showed a reduction in blood tumor burden. NK-mediated ADCC is selectively enhanced and might be a mechanism underlying the effect of ECP while in addition it can possibly serve as a reliable biomarker to objectively monitor response to ECP in patients with SS

estrutura e funcionamento de uma equipe de saude mental de trieste na perspectiva de seus integrantes um estudo qualitativo

O Modelo de Atenção Psicossocial vigente no Brasil requer práticas interdisciplinares e intersetoriais que produzam autonomia e cidadania. Essemodelo teve forte inspiração no modelo italiano. Este estudo teve por objetivo investigar a estrutura e funcionamento de uma equipe de saúdemental de Trieste, Itália, referência internacional na área, na perspectiva de seus integrantes. Entrevistas semiestruturadas foram realizadas com noveprofissionais. As entrevistas audiogravadas foram transcritas e analisadas qualitativamente. Os resultados apontam que a cobertura populacional doserviço, número de profissionais, organização das práticas, frequência e qualidade de reuniões são recursos essenciais. O eixo central do trabalho é aexistência de múltiplos espaços de discussão para a equipe e usuários, que potencializam práticas centradas na pessoa e no território. O processo dereflexão contínua é pautado em ações não-especialísticas e na discussão sobre as práticas cotidianas

A follow-up on psychiatric symptoms and post-traumatic stress disorders in Tuareg refugees in Burkina Faso

Introduction: The aim of this study was to carry out a 2-year follow-up of refugees in a camp in Burkina Faso who had been interviewed previously. We also aimed to verify whether the general conditions in which they lived (e.g., protection by international organizations and the conclusion of negotiations and new hope of returning to Mali and reunification with surviving family members) would affect their mental health state. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study repeated over time on a cohort of refugees. People living in the Subgandé camp who had participated in the first survey in 2012 were identified using informational chains and approached for follow-up. Those who agreed were interviewed using the Short Screening Scale for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the K6 scale, French versions, to measure general psychopathology and the level of impairment. Results: The second survey shows a dramatic decrease in psychopathological symptoms (positivity at K6 scale). Improvement was also conspicuous in the frequency of people with stress symptoms (positivity at Short Screening Scale for PTSD and simultaneous positivity to K6 scale). The frequency of people screened positive at the Short Screening Scale for PTSD had also decreased, but the level of improvement was not pronounced. Conclusion: Our findings confirm that when physical conditions improve, psychological symptoms can also improve. Although in the studied sample psychological factors, such as the hope of returning to their own land and thus the possibility of maintaining ethnic cohesion, may have played a role, future research carried out with a proper methodology and sufficient resources to identify protective factors is needed