Extraversion and neuroticism in sexually dysfunctional men suffering from erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation: a cross-sectional study

The role of personality traits in sexual complaints and dysfunctions is ever more evident. However, the literature is very scarce as to the possible relationships between such personality traits and specific sexual dysfunctions like ED, PE or both, their subtypes as to time of onset and severity levels. The main aim of the present study was to investigate if Neuroticism and Extraversion have different roles and trends in men suffering from PE and/or ED, both lifelong and acquired. Moreover, we verified if, by adopting DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5 criteria for diagnosing PE, some differences emerged in percentages of diagnosed cases. The sample consisted of 222 patients aged 18-70. The International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-15) was used to assess erectile function, and the Premature Ejaculation Severity Index (PESI) was used to assess the severity of PE dysfunction. Neuroticism and Extraversion were measured with the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (EPQ-R). In our results, Neuroticism and Extraversion were dependent on the kind of sexual dysfunction and its severity. These results suggest that type, time of onset and severity of sexual dysfunctions should be considered as related to specific personality characteristics and vice versa

FloWatcher-DPDK: lightweight line-rate flow-level monitoring in software

In the last few years, several software-based solutions have been proved to be very efficient for high-speed packet processing, traffic generation and monitoring, and can be considered valid alternatives to expensive and non-flexible hardware-based solutions. In our work, we first benchmark heterogeneous design choices for software-based packet monitoring systems in terms of achievable performance and required resources (i.e., the number of CPU cores). Building on this extensive analysis we design FloWatcher-DPDK, a DPDK-based high-speed software traffic monitor we provide to the community as an open source project. In a nutshell, FloWatcher-DPDK provides tunable fine-grained statistics at packet and flow levels. Experimental results demonstrate that FloWatcher-DPDK sustains per-flow statistics with 5-nines precision at high-speed (e.g., 14.88 Mpps) using a limited amount of resources. Finally, we showcase the usage of FloWatcher-DPDK by configuring it to analyze the performance of two open source prototypes for stateful flow-level end-host and in-network packet processing

Deciphering the molecular machinery of stem cells: a look at the neoblast gene expression profile

Comparison of the gene-expression profiles of planarians in which all adult pluripotent stem cells (neoblasts) were eliminated and wild-type worms identified a putative neoblast-restricted gene set. This included many genes involved in chromatin modeling and RNA metabolism, suggesting that epigenetic modifications and post-transcriptional regulation are important for neoblast regulation

c-KIT receptor expression is strictly associated with the biological behaviour of thyroid nodules

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A large amount of information has been collected on the molecular tumorigenesis of thyroid cancer. A low expression of c-KIT gene has been reported during the transformation of normal thyroid epithelium to papillary carcinoma suggesting a possible role of the gene in the differentiation of thyroid tissue rather than in the proliferation. The initial presentation of thyroid carcinoma is through a nodule and the best way nowadays to evaluate it is by fine-needle aspiration (FNA). However many thyroid FNAs are not definitively benign or malignant, yielding an indeterminate or suspicious diagnosis which ranges from 10 to 25% of FNAs. BRAF mutational analysis is commonly used to assess the malignancy of thyroid nodules but unfortunately it still leaves indeterminate diagnoses. The development of molecular initial diagnostic tests for evaluating a thyroid nodule is needed in order to define optimal surgical approach for patients with uncertain diagnosis pre- and intra-operatively.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this study we extracted RNA from 82 FNA smears, 46 malignant and 36 benign at the histology, in order to evaluate by quantitative Real Time PCR the expression levels of c-KIT gene.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We have found a highly preferential decrease rather than increase in transcript of c-KIT in malignant thyroid lesions compared to the benign ones. To explore the diagnostic utility of c-KIT expression in thyroid nodules, its expression values were divided in four arbitrarily defined classes, with class I characterized by the complete silencing of the gene. Class I and IV represented the two most informative groups, with 100% of the samples found malignant or benign respectively. The molecular analysis was proven by ROC (receiver operating characteristic) analysis to be highly specific and sensitive improving the cytological diagnostic accuracy of 15%.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We propose the use of BRAF test (after uncertain cytological diagnosis) to assess the malignancy of thyroid nodules at first, then the use of the c-KIT expression to ultimately assess the diagnosis of the nodules that otherwise would remain suspicious. The c-KIT expression-based classification is highly accurate and may provide a tool to overcome the difficulties in today's preoperative diagnosis of thyroid suspicious malignancies.</p

Minimally invasive video-assisted thyroidectomy (MIVAT)

Minimally invasive video-assisted thyroidectomy (MIVAT) was first described in 1999 and it has become a widespread technique performed worldwide. Although initially limited to benign thyroid nodules, MIVAT was progressively adopted for all types of thyroid diseases, while remaining within the selection criteria. It is reported that, in selected cases, MIVAT is comparable to standard open thyroidectomy (SOT) in terms of oncologic radicality, time, costs and complications rate, with the advantage of a better cosmetic result and a lower post-operative pain

Topological charge on the lattice: a field theoretical view of the geometrical approach

We construct sequences of ``field theoretical'' (analytical) lattice topological charge density operators which formally approach geometrical definitions in 2-d $CP^{N-1}$ models and 4-d $SU(N)$ Yang Mills theories. The analysis of these sequences of operators suggests a new way of looking at the geometrical method, showing that geometrical charges can be interpreted as limits of sequences of field theoretical (analytical) operators. In perturbation theory renormalization effects formally tend to vanish along such sequences. But, since the perturbative expansion is asymptotic, this does not necessarily lead to well behaved geometrical limits. It indeed leaves open the possibility that non-perturbative renormalizations survive.Comment: 14 pages, revte

A deep learning approach for Spatio-Temporal forecasting of new cases and new hospital admissions of COVID-19 spread in Reggio Emilia, Northern Italy

Since February 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic has rapidly spread throughout Italy. Some studies showed an association of environmental factors, such as PM10, PM2.5, NO2, temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, solar radiation and mobility with the spread of the epidemic. In this work, we aimed to predict via Deep Learning the real-time transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the province of Reggio Emilia, Northern Italy, in a grid with a small resolution (12&nbsp;km&nbsp;×&nbsp;12&nbsp;km), including satellite information

Dedifferentiated Melanoma: A Diagnostic Histological Pitfall! Review of the Literature with Case Presentation

Dedifferentiated melanoma is a particular form of malignant melanoma with a progressive worsening of the patient's clinical outcome. It is well known that melanoma can assume different histo-morphological patterns, to which specific genetic signatures correspond, sometimes but not always. In this review we address the diagnostic difficulties in correctly recognizing this entity, discuss the major differential diagnoses of interest to the dermatopathologist, and conduct a review of the literature with particular attention and emphasis on the latest molecular discoveries regarding the dedifferentiation/undifferentiation mechanism and more advanced therapeutic approaches

Probing the non-perturbative dynamics of SU(2) vacuum

The vacuum dynamics of SU(2) lattice gauge theory is studied by means of a gauge-invariant effective action defined using the lattice Schr\"odinger functional. Numerical simulations are performed both at zero and finite temperature. The vacuum is probed using an external constant Abelian chromomagnetic field. The results suggest that at zero temperature the external field is screened in the continuum limit. On the other hand at finite temperature it seems that confinement is restored by increasing the strength of the applied field.Comment: 29 pages, 10 figures, LaTeX2

A gauge invariant study of the monopole condensation in non Abelian lattice gauge theories

We investigate the Abelian monopole condensation in finite temperature SU(2) and SU(3) pure lattice gauge theories. To this end we introduce a gauge invariant disorder parameter built up in terms of the lattice Schr\"odinger functional. Our numerical results show that the disorder parameter is different from zero and Abelian monopole condense in the confined phase. On the other hand our numerical data suggest that the disorder parameter tends to zero, in the thermodynamic limit, when the gauge coupling constant approaches the critical deconfinement value. In the case of SU(3) we also compare the different kinds of Abelian monopoles which can be defined according to the choice of the Abelian subgroups.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, LaTe