AN INTEGRATED MODEL FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF STRESS-RELATED RISK FACTORS IN HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS

5Abstract To assess the risk from exposure to occupational stress and burnout in health care workers (HCW), a cross-sectional study was planned to compare objective data that can represent potential job stressors in hospital wards and subjective symptoms reported by the workers. Medical doctors, nurses and ancillary workers of the Internal Medicine Wards of a large public hospital in Northern Italy participated in the study. Three subjective questionnaires were administered: the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). In addition, seven objective parameters were collected as average during the 3 months period prior to the study: a) working understaffed; b) ratio number of patients/HCW on service; c) ratio number of HCW on sick leave/ HCW on service; d) number of skipped days off after night shifts; e) days of sick leave; f) number of deceased patients; g) number of accidents at work. A total group of 230 HCW were examined, employed in six different sub-units of the Medical wards. The female workers were 67.8% and the male workers 32.2%, the mean age was 37.4 years (SD 9.3) in the total group of HCW, 35.1 years (SD 7.9) in females and 42.3 years (SD 10.3) in males. The average scores of subjective and objective parameters resulted significantly higher in the same sub-units. The correlation analysis showed that the subjective questionnaires were highly inter-related. The multivariate analysis showed that the days of sick leave were significantly related to the subjective questionnaires, and the subjective subscales of emotional exhaustion (from MBI), job demand and decision latitude (from JCQ) and STAIt were significantly related to some of the objective parameters. These results support the integrated use of multiple subjective and objective assessment as the most appropriate approach for the evaluation of occupational stress.openopenAlbini, Elisa; Zoni, Silvia; Parrinello, Giovanni; Benedetti, Laura; Lucchini, RobertoAlbini, Elisa; Zoni, Silvia; Parrinello, Giovanni; Benedetti, Laura; Lucchini, Robert

Documentation of the waterways in the pavia flat land. Experience in detection with SLAM technology for the development of information models

The research, promoted by the DAda-LAB Laboratory of the University of Pavia, aims to structure a methodology and an operational protocol for the documentation of water canals in the Pavia territory. This protocol appears necessary to optimize the various phases that characterize both the documentation activities and the three-dimensional graphic representation of the agricultural territories of the flat land and their canalization networks through information systems. The study evaluates the most functional procedures to respect a infographics conformity in the building of reliable 3D models. The investigation activities see the construction of digital atlases on the elements that constitute the landscape. The result aims to product an informatic system to promote territory knowledge. This product qualifies as a documentary corpus made up of models, census data, and more generally of information systems connected to point clouds and 3D surveys. The result allows obtaining technical information, functional to administrations and consortia to simplify and improve the management of the territory, with economic and productive advantages

Looking for an objective parameter to identify early vocal dysfunctions in healthy prceived singers

The finding of minimal laryngeal dysfunctions in professional voice users is essential to prevent the onset of organic vocal pathologies. The purpose of this study is to identify an objective parameter that supports the phoniatric evaluation in detecting minimal laryngeal dysfunctions in singers. 54 professional and non-professional singers have been evaluated with laryngostroboscopy, Multi-Dimensional Voice Program (MDVP), Dysphonia Severity Index (DSI), maximum phonation time (TMF), minimum intensity of sound emission (I-min), maximum frequency (F-max), voice handicap index (VHI), singing voice handicap index (SVHI), manual phonogram and audiometric examination. The SVHI of all the “healthy” singers was on average 23.7 ± 22.5, while that of the “dysfunctional” 20.9 ± 18. No statistically significant difference was found between the SVHI scores of the total of healthy singers compared to the scores of the dysfunctional ones on the VSL (p = 0.6). The between-group comparison of the means of individual parameter values of DSI, TMF, F-max, Jitter, Shimmer, NHR, and SPI was not statistically significant (respectively p = 0.315, 0.2, 0.18, 0.09, 0.2, 0.08, 0.3). The only parameter analyzed that was statistically significant was the I-min (p < 0.05). SVHI is a valid instrument for the evaluation after a therapy but in our experience, it is not useful in distinguishing healthy from dysfunctional patients. The minimum intensity of sound emission measured with the sound level meter (I-low2) resulted a reliable parameter to identify minimal laryngeal dysfunctions and a useful tool in supporting the phoniatric diagnostic-therapeutic process in singers

Core charge distribution and self assembly of columnar phases: the case of triphenylenes and azatriphenylenes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The relation betweeen the structure of discotic molecules and columnar properties, a crucial point for the realization of new advanced materials, is still largely unknown. A paradigmatic case is that hexa-alkyl-thio substituted triphenylenes present mesogenic behavior while the corresponding azatriphenylenes, similar in shape and chemical structure, but with a different core charge distribution, do not form any liquid crystalline mesophase. This study is aimed at investigating, with the help of computer simulations techniques, the effects on phase behaviour of changes of the charge distribution in the discotic core.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We described the shape and the pair, dispersive and electrostatic, interactions of hexa alkyl triphenylenes by uniaxial Gay-Berne discs with embedded point charges. Gay-Berne parameters were deduced by fitting the dispersive energies obtained from an atomistic molecular dynamics simulation of a small sample of hexa-octyl-thio triphenylene molecules in columnar phase, while a genetic algorithm was used to get a minimal set of point charges that properly reproduces the ab anitio electrostatic potential. We performed Monte Carlo simulations of three molecular models: the pure Gay-Berne disc, used as a reference, the Gay-Berne disc with hexa-thio triphenylene point charges, the Gay-Berne disc with hexa-thio azatriphenylene point charges. The phase diagram of the pure model evidences a rich polymorphism, with isotropic, columnar and crystalline phases at low pressure, and the appearance of nematic phase at higher pressure.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We found that the intermolecular electrostatic potential among the cores is fundamental in sta-bilizing/destabilizing columnar phases; in particular the triphenylene charge distribution stabilizes the columnar structure, while the azatriphenylene distribution suppresses its formation in favor of the nematic phase. We believe the present model could be successfully employed as the basis for coarse-grained level simulations of a wider class of triphenylene derivatives.</p

Chk1 Inhibition Restores Inotuzumab Ozogamicin Citotoxicity in CD22-Positive Cells Expressing Mutant p53

Inotuzumab ozogamicin (IO) is an anti-CD22 calicheamicin immunoconjugate that has been recently approved for the treatment of relapsed or refractory B-Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (r/r B-ALL). We employed both immortalized and primary cells derived from CD22-positive lymphoproliferative disorders to investigate the signaling pathways contributing to IO sensitivity or resistance. We found that the drug reduced the proliferation rate of CD22-positive cell lines expressing wild-type p53, but was remarkably less effective on cells exhibiting mutant p53. In addition, CD22-positive cells surviving IO were mostly blocked in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle because of Chk1 activation that, in the presence of a wild-type p53 background, led to p21 induction. When we combined IO with the Chk1 inhibitor UCN-01, we successfully abrogated IO-induced G2/M arrest regardless of the underlying p53 status, indicating that the DNA damage response triggered by IO is also modulated by p53-independent mechanisms. To establish a predictive value for p53 in determining IO responsiveness, we expressed mutant p53 in cell lines displaying the wild-type gene and observed an increase in IO IC50 values. Likewise, overexpression of an inducible wild-type p53 in cells natively presenting a mutant protein decreased their IC50 for IO. These results were also confirmed in primary CD22-positive cells derived from B-ALL patients at diagnosis and from patients with r/r B-ALL. Furthermore, co-treatment with IO and UCN-01 significantly increased cell death in primary cells expressing mutant p53. In summary, our findings suggest that p53 status may represent a biomarker predictive of IO efficacy in patients diagnosed with CD22-positive malignancies

Obstructive Sleep Apnea Is Associated with Liver Damage and Atherosclerosis in Patients with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

We assessed whether obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and nocturnal hypoxemia are associated with severity of liver fibrosis and carotid atherosclerosis in patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD and low prevalence of morbid obesity. Secondary aim was to explore the association of OSA and hypoxemia with NASH and severity of liver pathological changes

Geometry as a tool for the design of military architecture: the experience of Giovanni Battista Antonelli

none2noThe design of defensive fortresses during the sixteenth century was completed by means of drawing and geometry, by fixing the plan of the pentagonal bastions starting from the line of cannons’ enfilading fire and their rifle range. The proportions of the project derived mainly from ballistics studies and geometry was considered to be the essential tool every technician should use to draw up an efficient protection. Giovanni Battista Antonelli, a military engineer of Italian descent and the first member of his important family that worked for the Spanish kingdom for almost a century, explains in his treatise the compositional logics and the necessary proportions used for the design of defensive buildings. His theoretical work on modern fortifications, entitled Epitomi delle fortificationi moderne di Giovambatta Antonelli, never published and written in Spain between 1560 and 1561, elucidates the geometric rules to project the elements a modern fortification is composed of. These elements, e.g. ramparts, curtains, moat, embrasures and so on, are described in detail in the first book of the Epitomi, specifically dedicated to the defensive architecture, that also gives some information about the different metric units of measurements for the correct dimensioning of architecture, relating the measure in foot units of each country, both in Italy and in Spain. The iconographic setting that enriches the text of the ancient manuscript presents some schematic images that have been examined as well as shaped in a virtual three-dimensional model, in order to provide an exact reconstruction of the “royal bastion” as suggested by Antonelli. The research aims at highlighting the importance of the activities in defensive architecture by Antonelli, and the heritage passed on his family, who disseminated the sixteenth-century architecture in the whole wide world, from Italy to Europe and even to the Caribbean.mixedParrinello, Sandro; Bertacchi, SilviaParrinello, Sandro; Bertacchi, Silvi

L'Eremo di Santa B\ue1rbara nel castello di Alicante in Spagna: ipotesi evolutiva dell'edificio a partire dai disegni degli ingegneri militari

Ricerca sull'eremo di Santa B\ue1rbara nel castello di Alicante, Spagna, con uno studio eseguito sulla documentazione grafica archivistica lasciata dagli ingegneri militari che si occuparono nei secoli della manutenzione e del rinnovamento della fortezza