Comparison of Oxford Cognitive Screen and Montreal Cognitive Assessment feasibility in the stroke unit setting. A pilot study

Background: : Cognitive status evaluation is not routine in the acute stroke setting and there is no consensus on which neuropsychological tool is more feasible and informative. The aim of this pilot study was to compare the feasibility and acceptability of two brief cognitive tests, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and the Oxford Cognitive Screen (OCS), in acute stroke, with a focus on patients' experience, administration time, and the cognitive data obtained. Methods: : Patients with a diagnosis of ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke or of transient ischemic attack admitted to two stroke units were included. The sample consisted of 34 participants (mean age ±SD 71.1 ± 16.1 years, 25 males). Within five days of onset, patients were evaluated by means of the MoCA and OCS by a trained neuropsychologist. Results: Both tests were feasible in the stroke unit setting and had a high level of acceptability by patients. MoCA test was fully completed by 25 patients, OCS by 21 patients. The OCS administration time was longer than that of the MoCA. However, OCS was perceived less demanding than MoCA by patients. Twenty patients completed both the MoCA and the OCS entirely, and only 2 of them did not show any impairment in both tests. Seventeen patients showed at least an impaired domain on the OCS and 15 patients presented with a MoCA global score below cut-off for cognitive impairment. Conclusions: Our preliminary study did not show a superiority of the OCS over the widely used MoCA, and suggests the need for further validation in larger samples of stroke patients, exploring tests accuracy in detecting cognitive post-stroke impairment

[Prevalence of acid burns among asylum seekers hosted in an initial reception centre as an example of health assessment in a fragile population]

OBJECTIVES: to evaluate the prevalence of acid burns among asylum seekers hosted in an initial reception centre and to evaluate if the prevalence is reduced after the introduction of the European Union (EU) regulation No. 29 (14th September 2016) that indirectly reduced the permanence time of the subjects on board of boats. DESIGN: cross-sectional study. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: 10,627 asylum seekers hosted in the centre for initial reception of Piedmont and Valle d\u2019Aosta Regions (Northern Italy) between June 2016 and May 2017. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: frequencies of health problems and prevalence of second and third grade acid burns identified on arrival. RESULTS: among the asylum seekers coming to the centre, about 25% suffered at least from a mild disease, mainly cutaneous, respiratory, or digestive; 69 acid burns were identified (prevalence: 6.7\u2030, 95%CI 5.2-8.3), mainly located in the lower limbs and in the glutes. Median time between disembarkation and treatment is 2 days. Prevalence is significantly higher in women compared to men and a not-significant 20% reduction was observed comparing the situation before and after the introduction of the EU regulation No. 29. CONCLUSION: an assessment of the health status of asylum seekers that takes into account more than the identification of the rare life-threatening or infective diseases allows to take prompt action and to invest economical resources in the fields where they are more useful. This would facilitate a good health care for asylum seekers, that is the basis of an efficient functioning of services for integration

Archimedes: a feasibility study of an experiment to weigh the electromagnetic vacuum

Archimedes is a feasibility study of a future experiment to ascertain the interaction of vacuum fluctuations with gravity. The experiment should measure the force that the earth's gravitational field exerts on a Casimir cavity by using a small force detector. Here we analyse the main parameters of the experiment and we present its conceptual scheme, which overcomes in principle the most critical problems.Comment: 3 pages, MG14 Conferenc

"Journey of hope": a study on sexual gender-based violence reported by asylum-seeking women during their journey to Europe

to describe sexual gender-based violence (SGBV) reported by asylum-seeking women during their journey from their country of origin to Italy, using data obtained from medical record of asylum seekers hosted between June 2016 and December 2017 at the "T. Fenoglio" Red Cross Reception Centre, one of the largest Italian regional hubs; to evaluate if, based on these data, it is possible to hypothesize an underreporting of SGBV from these women

Enhanced CAMx source apportionment analysis at an urban receptor in Milan based on source categories and emission regions

Source apportionment results from CAMx/PSAT v6.3 model simulation at an urban receptor placed in Milan city centre are presented. CAMx was run over a domain covering the Po valley for the calendar year of 2010. Model simulations considered nitrogen dioxide (NO2), fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and its primary and secondary components, i.e.: elemental carbon (EC) and nitrate (NO3−). Source apportionment results are separately reported with respect to emission regions (e.g.: local, urban, metropolitan areas, counties) and emission categories (e.g.: transport, space heating, industrial activities) and to the combination of emission regions and categories. Five emission regions were considered, starting from a narrow region covering Milan city centre, up to Milan municipality, Milan metropolitan area, Lombardy region, and to the entire Po valley. In terms of emission region contributions, Milan municipality, its metropolitan area, and Lombardy region account for about 60% of PM2.5 total mass at the selected receptor. However, local scale emissions contribute for more than 50% to EC ambient levels at this receptor. Conversely, the sources located in the farthest emission regions (Lombardy and Po valley) and long range transport determine the largest contribution (80%) to NO3− concentration. For NO2, local scale emissions are responsible for more than 60% of the ambient concentration levels in Milan city centre. In terms of source categories, traffic is the main contributor to NO2 and NO3−, biomass burning and traffic to EC and PM2.5 mass. The emission categories contributions to PM2.5 estimated by CAMx/PSAT for the selected receptor show a rather good agreement with Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) source apportionment results available for Milan area. However, the two approaches provide similar estimations only for biomass burning and traffic contributions (24% and 20%, respectively) whereas CAMx gives remarkably lower estimates for the share of secondary organic aerosol (SOA), likely because of missing formation processes in CAMx chemical module. © 2019 The Author(s)This work has been financed by the Research Fund for the Italian Electrical System under the Contract Agreement between RSE S.p.A. and the Ministry of Economic Development - General Directorate for Nuclear Energy , Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in compliance with the Decree of March 8, 2006. Authors are grateful to EU project AIRUSE-LIFE + for all PM concentrations data at Milan air quality station. Authors wish also to thank the EU Joint Research Centre that through EBAS platform shares observed data collected at Ispra (Italy) EMEP site. The authors are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their useful comments and suggestion as well as to Prof. Paola Crippa from the University of Notre Dame for her valuable comments and help in the final revision of the manuscript. Appendix APeer reviewe

[Prevalence of acid burns among asylum seekers hosted in an initial reception centre as an example of health assessment in a fragile population]

to evaluate the prevalence of acid burns among asylum seekers hosted in an initial reception centre and to evaluate if the prevalence is reduced after the introduction of the European Union (EU) regulation No. 29 (14th September 2016) that indirectly reduced the permanence time of the subjects on board of boats

Markers of cell proliferation as prognostic factors in differentiated thyroid cancer.

Age is the most accepted prognostic factor in differentiated thyroid cancer. Other parameters, such as tumor size, grading, extrathyroidal extension, have also been associated with the prognosis of these tumors. Since the identification of reliable prognostic factors is essential to avoid unnecessary aggressive treatment for a disease, such as thyroid carcinoma, which only rarely is fatal, we studied two indices of cell proliferation in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer, in relation to their outcome. We studied two groups of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer, selected in a way to have one group (33 patients) with a good outcome and one (16 patients) with a fatal outcome, after a follow-up of at least 5 years. By immunohistochemistry the primary tumors of all patients were analyzed for the expression of the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA)/cyclin. In 38 (77.5%) of them also the nuclear DNA content and the percentages of S-phases were analyzed by flow cytometric analysis. At diagnosis the two groups of patients differed significantly with regard to age and extrathyroidal extension, but not for tumor size and grading. A significant difference (p=0.02) was found in the positivity of PCNA/cyclin expression between the fatal outcome group (66.6%) and the surviving patients (27%), and in the percentage of cells in the S-phase, 16.4+/-7.7% in the fatal outcome group patients and 6.0+/-2.6% in the surviving patients (p=0.0001). No difference was found in the nuclear DNA content of the two groups. A positive correlation was found between PCNA expression and S-phase (r(s)=0.55; p<0.001). A positive correlation was found between age and both the percentage of S-phase cells (r(s)=0.48; p<0.002) and PCNA expression (r(s)=0.36; p<0.009). In a multivariate analysis (Cox model) age and S-phase had independent prognostic significance (regression coefficient: 3.85 and 1.70, respectively), while PCNA was not an independent variable (0.98). Our results indicate that differentiated thyroid tumors with fatal outcome are characterized by two parameters of active cell proliferation (S-phase cell fraction and PCNA expression), which can be used as useful prognostic factors