264 research outputs found
The Atlas of food. Processes, actors and representations toward the food strategy of Torino metropolitana
Nuova formulazione delle procedure per la stima dellâintensitĂ macrosismica da dati epicentrali o da risentimenti in zone vicine
Vengono presentate nuove relazioni empiriche, definite per il territorio italiano, per la stima dellâintensitĂ in un dato sito a partire da informazioni epicentrali o relative a localitĂ vicine. Queste relazioni, espresse in forma probabilistica e quindi direttamente utilizzabili per la stima della pericolositĂ sismica, condividono la stessa formalizzazione e la medesima base informativa.
In particolare, sono state seguite tre diverse strategie: le prime due hanno portato alla definizione di una relazione di attenuazione per la stima dellâintensitĂ al sito da dati epicentrali utilizzando una forma parametrica rispettivamente Gaussiana e Binomiale; la terza analisi Ăš stata invece mirata a definire le modalitĂ di âcorrezioneâ del valore locale di intensitĂ , dedotto dalle informazioni epicentrali, con dati di risentimenti osservati in localitĂ vicine al sito in esame
B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia with t(2;9)(p11;p13) involving the immunoglobulin kappa locus (IGK) and PAX-5
Neuropsychiatric symptoms and syndromes in a large cohort of newly diagnosed, untreated patients with Alzheimer disease.
Objectives: Neuropsychiatric symptoms are common in patients with Alzheimer disease
(AD). Treatment for both AD and psychiatric disturbances may affect the clinical observed
pattern and comorbidity. The authors aimed to identify whether particular
neuropsychiatric syndromes occur in untreated patients with AD, establish the severity of
syndromes, and investigate the relationship between specific neuropsychiatric syndromes
and AD disease severity. Design: Cross-sectional, multicenter, clinical study.
Participants: A total of 1,015 newly diagnosed, untreated outpatients with AD from five
Italian memory clinics were consecutively enrolled in the study from January 2003 to
December 2005. Measurements: All patients underwent thorough examination by
clinical neurologists/geriatricians, including neuropsychiatric symptom evaluation with
the Neuropsychiatric Inventory. Results: Factor analysis revealed five distinct neuropsychiatric
syndromes: the apathetic syndrome (as unique syndrome) was the most frequent,
followed by affective syndrome (anxiety and depression), psychomotor (agitation,
irritability, and aberrant motor behavior), psychotic (delusions and hallucinations), and
manic (disinhibition and euphoria) syndromes. More than three quarters of patients
with AD presented with one or more of the syndromes (N 790, 77.8%), and more than
half exhibited clinically significant severity of symptoms (N 603, 59.4%). With the
exception of the affective one, all syndromes showed an increased occurrence with
increasing severity of dementia. Conclusions: The authorsâ study supports the use of a
syndrome approach for neuropsychiatric evaluation in patients with AD. Individual
neuropsychiatric symptoms can be reclassified into five distinct psychiatric syndromes.
Clinicians should incorporate a thorough psychiatric and neurologic examination of
patients with AD and consider therapeutic strategies that focus on psychiatric syndromes,
rather than specific individual symptoms
In Search of New Imaging For Historical Earthquakes: A New Geophysical Survey Offshore Western Calabria (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy)
During the summer of 2010 we carried out a survey to acquire a multidisciplinary dataset within the Gulf of Sant'Eufemia (SE Tyrrhenian sea, Italy), with the aim of studying the active tectonics affecting the region, including that potentially responsible for key, elusive earthquakes such as the to-date unexplained 8 September 1905 (Mw 7 - 7.5) earthquake.
The data here analysed highlight the presence of several tectonic and morphologic features characterizing the investigated area. We have recognized the Angitola Channel, a deep and wide canyon showing a straight trend in its coastward segment, and a meandering trend in the seaward segment. Based on morpho-structural
elements, we maintain that the Angitola Channel could be tectonically controlled. Moreover, several gravitational instabilities as slumps and collapses affect the flanks of the morpho-structural high, detected offshore Capo Vaticano. Very high resolution seismic data have unveiled the presence of numerous fluid escape features and several mud volcanoes straddling the sector from the coastline to seaward.INOGS (RIMA Department) supported the acquisition of the entire dataset.Published385-4013.2. Tettonica attivaJCR Journalrestricte
Rapid COVID-19 screening based on self-reported symptoms: Psychometric assessment and validation of the EPICOVID19 short diagnostic scale
Background: Confirmed COVID-19 cases have been registered in more than 200 countries, and as of July 28, 2020, over 16 million cases have been reported to the World Health Organization. This study was conducted during the epidemic peak of COVID-19 in Italy. The early identification of individuals with suspected COVID-19 is critical in immediately quarantining such individuals. Although surveys are widely used for identifying COVID-19 cases, outcomes, and associated risks, no validated epidemiological tool exists for surveying SARS-CoV-2 infection in the general population. Objective: We evaluated the capability of self-reported symptoms in discriminating COVID-19 to identify individuals who need to undergo instrumental measurements. We defined and validated a method for identifying a cutoff score. Methods: Our study is phase II of the EPICOVID19 Italian national survey, which launched in April 2020 and included a convenience sample of 201,121 adults who completed the EPICOVID19 questionnaire. The Phase II questionnaire, which focused on the results of nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) and serological tests, was mailed to all subjects who previously underwent NPS tests. Results: Of 2703 subjects who completed the Phase II questionnaire, 694 (25.7%) were NPS positive. Of the 472 subjects who underwent the immunoglobulin G (IgG) test and 421 who underwent the immunoglobulin M test, 22.9% (108/472) and 11.6% (49/421) tested positive, respectively. Compared to NPS-negative subjects, NPS-positive subjects had a higher incidence of fever (421/694, 60.7% vs 391/2009, 19.5%; P<.001), loss of taste and smell (365/694, 52.6% vs 239/2009, 11.9%; P<.001), and cough (352/694, 50.7% vs 580/2009, 28.9%; P<.001). With regard to subjects who underwent serological tests, IgG-positive subjects had a higher incidence of fever (65/108, 60.2% vs 43/364, 11.8%; P<.001) and pain in muscles/bones/joints (73/108, 67.6% vs 71/364, 19.5%; P<.001) than IgG-negative subjects. An analysis of self-reported COVID-19 symptom items revealed a 1-factor solution, the EPICOVID19 diagnostic scale. The following optimal scores were identified: 1.03 for respiratory problems, 1.07 for chest pain, 0.97 for loss of taste and smell 0.97, and 1.05 for tachycardia (ie, heart palpitations). These were the most important symptoms. For adults aged 18-84 years, the cutoff score was 2.56 (sensitivity: 76.56%; specificity: 68.24%) for NPS-positive subjects and 2.59 (sensitivity: 80.37%; specificity: 80.17%) for IgG-positive subjects. For subjects aged â„60 years, the cutoff score was 1.28, and accuracy based on the presence of IgG antibodies improved (sensitivity: 88.00%; specificity: 89.58%). Conclusions: We developed a short diagnostic scale to detect subjects with symptoms that were potentially associated with COVID-19 from a wide population. Our results support the potential of self-reported symptoms in identifying individuals who require immediate clinical evaluations. Although these results come from the Italian pandemic period, this short diagnostic scale could be optimized and tested as a screening tool for future similar pandemics
Learning from the public: citizens describe the need to improve end-of-life care access, provision and recognition across Europe
Self-reported symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a non-hospitalized population : results from the large Italian web-based EPICOVID19 cross-sectional survey. (Preprint)
Background:
Understanding the occurrence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2)-like symptoms in a large non-hospitalized population, when the epidemic peak was occurring in Italy, is of paramount importance but data are scarce.
Objective:
Aims of this study were to evaluate the association of self-reported symptoms with SARS-CoV-2 nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) test in non-hospitalized individuals and to estimate the occurrence of COVID-19-like symptoms in a larger non-tested population.
Methods:
This is an Italian countrywide self-administered cross-sectional web-based survey on voluntary adults who completed an anonymous questionnaire in the period 13-21 April 2020. The associations between symptoms potentially related to SARS-CoV-2 infection and NPS results were calculated as adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals (aOR, 95%CI) by means of multiple logistic regression analysis controlling for age, sex, education, smoking habits, and the number of co-morbidities. Thereafter, for each symptom and for their combination, we calculated sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and AUC in a ROC analysis to estimate the occurrence of COVID-19-like infections in the non-tested population.
Results:
A total of 171,310 responded to the survey (59.9% females, mean age 47.4 years). Out of the 4,785 respondents with known NPS test result, 4,392 were not hospitalized. Among them, the NPS positive respondents (n=856) most frequently reported myalgia (61.6%), olfactory and/or taste disorders (OTDs, 59.2%), cough (54.4%), and fever (51.9%) whereas 7.7% were asymptomatic. Multiple regression analysis showed that OTDs (aOR 10.3, [95%CI 8.4-12.7]), fever (2.5, 95%CI 2.0-3.1), myalgia (1.5, 95%CI 1.2-1.8), and cough (1.3, 95%CI 1.0-1.6) were associated with NPS positivity. Having two to four of these symptoms increased the aOR from 7.4 (95%CI, 5.6-9.7) to 35.5 (95%CI, 24.6-52.2). The combination of the four symptoms showed an AUC of 0.810 (95%CI 0.795-0.825) in classifying NPS-P, and was applied to the non-hospitalized and non-tested sample (n=165,782). We found that from 4.4% to 12.1% of respondents had experienced symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 infection.
Conclusions:
Our results suggest that self-reported symptoms may be reliable indicators of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a pandemic context. A not negligible part (up to 12.1%) of the symptomatic respondents were left undiagnosed and potentially contributed to the spread of the infection
Investigating the purpose of an online discussion group for health professionals: a case example from forensic occupational therapy
Background: Thousands of health-related online discussion groups are active world-wide however, very little is known about the purpose and usefulness of such groups. In 2003 an online discussion group called âforensic occupational therapy' was established in the United Kingdom. This group was examined to gain an understanding of the purpose and use of online discussion groups for health professionals who may be practically and geographically isolated from others in similar areas of practice. Methods: Following a case study design, descriptive characteristics on members' locations and number of posts were collected from the forensic occupational therapy online discussion group. Eight years of posts (2003-2011) were examined using a theoretical thematic analysis process to identify and describe the purposes for which members were using the group. Results: Members from 20 countries contributed to the discussion group; the vast majority of posts being from members in the United Kingdom. Activity within the group was consistently high for the first five years however, activity within the group declined in the final three years. Six purposes for which members use the online discussion group were identified: seeking and giving advice, networking, requesting and sharing material resources, service development, defining the role of occupational therapists, and student learning. Conclusions: Findings suggest that health professionals in specialized and often isolated areas of practice are keen to connect with colleagues and learn from each other's experiences. The main purposes for which the online discussion group was used could be summarized as communication, information sharing and networking; though activity within the group declined significantly during the last three years of the data collection period. This raises questions about the sustainability of online discussion groups within the rapidly developing social media environment
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