Early introduction oral immunotherapy for IgE-mediated cow's milk allergy: A follow-up study confirms this approach as safe and appealing to parents

Introduction: Early introduction oral immunotherapy (E-OIT) in the first year of life can be a safe treatment for infants with cow's milk allergy (CMA). Once the protocol is completed, doubts remain whether children achieve tolerance or remain desensitized. According to current guidelines, this is determined by an avoidance period followed by a re-exposure to the food allergen during an in-hospital oral food challenge (OFC). In real life, this approach can be complicated, time-consuming, and anxiety-provoking for parents. We assessed the long-term safety of E-OIT for CMA in a cohort of children who switched to an unrestricted diet without testing the achievement of tolerance at the end of the OIT protocol. Materials and Methods: We performed a descriptive analysis of the clinical follow-up of a cohort of children diagnosed with IgE-mediated CMA and undergoing E-OIT protocol in their first year of life. In a previous publication, the same cohort of patients had been studied to assess the feasibility of E-OIT for CMA. In the present study, we reported the results of a telephone survey, carried out through a questionnaire to their families enquiring about milk consumption and other ongoing atopic conditions of children. Results: After an average of 4 years from the start of E-OIT, 62/73 patients (85% of the historical cohort) participated in the survey. Among them, all 56 patients who had previously successfully completed the protocol reported an unrestricted cow's milk intake. Ninety–three percent of these children did not experience any further allergic reactions, while the remaining 7% described only mild and transitory reactions until the 6-month period after the end of the protocol. Conclusions: This study confirmed the long-term safety of E-OIT for CMA and challenged the paradigm of the need for allergen food withdrawal to discern between desensitization and tolerance. It could be a starting point for planning future trials on this issue

The digital whomanities project. Best practices for digital pedagogy in the pandemic era

This paper aims to enter the ongoing debate about the critical issues of digital pedagogy through the presentation of Digital WHOmanities, a series of online conferences and workshops held at the University of Bologna. Distance learning has become one of the most discussed topics in educational institutions during the spread of Covid-19, revealing a discrepancy between the rapid development of technology and the ability of learning environments to adapt to this turn. In view of this ongoing debate, Digital WHOmanities tried to define the complex and multifaceted figure of the digital humanist and to provide a methodological framework that could foster further online academic initiatives. Specifically, the accurate organization of timing and contents and the adoption of synchronous and asynchronous approaches have highlighted the effectiveness of flexible digital didactics

Improving elevation perception with a tool for image-guided head-related transfer function selection

This paper proposes an image-guided HRTF selection procedure that exploits the relation between features of the pinna shape and HRTF notches. Using a 2D image of a subject's pinna, the procedure selects from a database the HRTF set that best fits the anthropometry of that subject. The proposed procedure is designed to be quickly applied and easy to use for a user without previous knowledge on binaural audio technologies. The entire process is evaluated by means of an auditory model for sound localization in the mid-sagittal plane available from previous literature. Using virtual subjects from a HRTF database, a virtual experiment is implemented to assess the vertical localization performance of the database subjects when they are provided with HRTF sets selected by the proposed procedure. Results report a statistically significant improvement in predictions of localization performance for selected HRTFs compared to KEMAR HRTF which is a commercial standard in many binaural audio solutions; moreover, the proposed analysis provides useful indications to refine the perceptually-motivated metrics that guides the selection

Applying a single-notch metric to image-guided head-related transfer function selection for improved vertical localization

This paper proposes an image-guided HRTF selection procedure that exploits the relation between features of the pinna shape and HRTF notches. Using a 2D image of a user's pinna, the procedure selects from a database the HRTF set that best fits the anthropometry of that user. The proposed procedure is designed to be quickly applied and easy to use for a user without previous knowledge on binaural audio technologies. The entire process is evaluated by means of (i) an auditory model for sound localization in the mid-sagittal plane available from previous literature, and (ii) a short localization test in virtual reality. Using both virtual and real subjects from an HRTF database, predictions and the experimental evaluation aimed to assess the vertical localization performance with HRTF sets selected by the proposed procedure. Our results report a statistically significant improvement in predictions of the auditory model for localization performance with selected HRTFs compared to KEMAR HRTFs, which is a commercial standard in many binaural audio solutions. Moreover, the proposed localization test with human listeners reflect the model's predictions, further supporting the applicability of our perceptually-motivated metrics with anthropometric data extracted by pinna images

Applying a Single-notch Metric to Image-guided Head-related Transfer Function Selection for Improved Vertical Localization

This paper proposes an image-guided HRTF selection procedure that exploits the relation between features of the pinna shape and HRTF notches. Using a 2D image of a user's pinna, the procedure selects from a database the HRTF set that best fits the anthropometry of that user. The proposed procedure is designed to be quickly applied and easy to use for a user without previous knowledge on binaural audio technologies. The entire process is evaluated by means of (i) an auditory model for sound localization in the mid-sagittal plane available from previous literature, and (ii) a short localization test in virtual reality. Using both virtual and real subjects from a HRTF database, predictions and the experimental evaluation aimed to assess the vertical localization performance with HRTF sets selected by the proposed procedure. Our results report a statistically significant improvement in predictions of the auditory model for localization performance with selected HRTFs compared to KEMAR HRTFs, which is a commercial standard in many binaural audio solutions. Moreover, the proposed localization test with human listeners reflect the model's predictions, further supporting the applicability of our perceptually-motivated metrics with anthropometric data extracted by pinna images