L’essenziale è invisibile agli occhi

Rossella Stallone testifies her personal experience as user and lover of audio described art works. Starting from the assumption that accessibility to arts represents a form of democracy, she describes accessibility as a social value to be defended and promoted. Furthermore, Stallone points out the aesthetic quality of audio described products and the necessity to abandon a merely welfare logic

Direction of arrival estimation using a cluster of beams in a cone-shaped digital array radar'

In this paper some potential system and processing advantages of conformal cone shaped digital array radar have been investigated, in particular in relation to potential alternative approaches for angle estimation with respect to the traditional monopulse. First of all potential benefit in terms of reduction of the number of radiating elements is shown when a conical array is considered with respect to a traditional system formed by four planar arrays, if a coverage of 360° must be assured. Secondly, having in mind an innovative digital array system where the received signals are analog to digital converted at element level and the corresponding data are possibly transferred to a central elaboration unit, an alternative approach is investigated for angular estimation. In this paper we derive the theoretical expression of the Cramer Rao Lower Bound for elevation angle estimation using a cluster of beams; we compare the limit performance of the traditional approach for angle estimation based on Sum and Difference beams with the approach based on a crowded cluster of RX beams properly spaced. The approaches show approximately equivalent performance, making the second particularly interesting for those situations where monopulse is known to experience performance degradation, as low elevation angle estimation; in this particular case an example of cluster design is shown, where the direct signal from a low altitude target must compete with a specular multipath

Dietary intakes in infertile women a pilot study

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Juvenile sex offenders: Personality profile, coping styles and parental care

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in juvenile sex offenders showing that this population is highly heterogeneous. The aim of the present study was to identify possible different profiles that could help understand the motivation behind offending, comparing 31 Juvenile Sexual Offenders (JSOs), 31 Juvenile Sexual Non Offenders (JSNOs) and 31 Juvenile Non Offenders (Control Group). A data collection form, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A) or Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2), the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS) and the Parental Bonding Inventory (PBI) were administered to all participants. The results show that JSOs differs from JNSOs in some domains, such as living in single-parent homes, while maintain some common aspects such as academic failure and previous sexual intercourse. Moreover, JNSOs showed more abnormal personality traits, such as Authority Problems, MacAndrew Alcoholism, Acknowledgement and Alcohol-Drug Problem Proneness compared to JSOs and the Control Group, while JSOs and JNSOs use a coping strategy more oriented to Avoidance and Distraction compared to the Control group. Finally, JSOs described the relationships with fathers characterized by higher care and protection than JNSOs. These findings provide additional evidence with respect the prevention and treatment of criminal sexual behavior in adolescent

Nocturnal haemodialysis is associated with a reduced occurrence of low triiodothyronine serum levels in haemodialysed patients

Background End-stage renal disease (ESRD) is associated with a broad spectrum of morphological and functional thyroid disorders. Recent studies have shown that low free triiodothyronine (fT3) levels are related to inflammatory status and endothelial activation in ESRD patients on haemodialysis (HD). Limited data exist about a possible relationship between dialysis regimen, namely long nocturnal haemodialysis (LNHD), and thyroid function parameters. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between dialysis regimen and thyroid function, and consequently with the main patient outcomes. Methods To this purpose, we performed a retrospective, single-centre cohort study including 220 incident chronic HD patients treated during an 8-year period (from January 2010 to December 2017). The main clinical and haematochemical parameters, including thyroid function, were evaluated and related to the main patient outcomes. Results Patients with low fT3 levels (<3.05 ng/mL) showed significantly lower survival rates than patients with normal fT3 levels (>3.05 ng/mL) (P < 0.001), although there were no substantial differences in the demographic and clinical characteristics between the two groups. After propensity score 1:3 matching of 25 patients treated with nocturnal HD to 75 patients treated with diurnal HD, LNHD patients showed significantly higher survival rates (88.0% versus 61.3%, P = 0.001) and lower incidence of cardiovascular events than patients on diurnal dialysis (8.0% versus 40.0%, P = 0.001). Moreover, an 8-year time-dependent analysis showed that at any time, except for baseline, the rate of patients with fT3 levels >3.05 ng/mL was significantly higher in LNHD patients than in patients treated with diurnal dialysis. Conclusions Our data suggest that the application of alternative dialysis regimens, also reducing the frequency of low T3, could ameliorate outcomes and therefore reduce the incidence of cardiovascular events in HD patients

Apolipoprotein E genotype, inflammatory biomarkers, and non-psychiatric multimorbidity contribute to the suicidal ideation phenotype in older age. The Salus in Apulia Study

Possible relationships between suicidal ideation and biopsychosocial predictors in older age are unclear. In the population-based Salus in Apulia Study, we investigated the relationships among biomarkers, socio-demographic, psychopathological, inflammatory and metabolic characteristics and suicidal ideation in 1252 older subjects

Age-Related Central Auditory Processing Disorder, MCI, and Dementia in an Older Population of Southern Italy

Objective: We explored the associations of age-related central auditory processing disorder (CAPD) with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia in an older population-based cohort in Apulia, Southern Italy (GreatAGE Study). / Study Design: Cross-sectional data from a population-based study. / Setting: Castellana Grotte, Bari, Italy. / Subjects and Methods: Between 2013 and 2018, MCI, dementia, age-related CAPD (no disabling hearing loss and 65 years. / Results: The prevalences of age-related CAPD, MCI, and dementia were 14.15%, 15.79%, and 3.58%, respectively. Among the subjects with MCI and dementia, 19.61% and 42.37% had age-related CAPD. In the regressive models, age-related CAPD was associated with MCI (odds ratio, 1.50; 95% CI, 1.01-2.21) and dementia (odds ratio, 2.23; 95% CI, 1.12-4.42). Global cognition scores were positively associated with increasing SSI-ICM scores in linear models. All models were adjusted for demographics and metabolic serum biomarkers. / Conclusion: The tight association of age-related CAPD with MCI and dementia suggests the involvement of central auditory pathways in neurodegeneration, but it is not clear which is the real direction of this association. However, CAPD is a possible diagnostic marker of cognitive dysfunction in older patients

Study on psychoeducation enhancing results of adherence in patients with schizophrenia (SPERA-S): Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Poor adherence to pharmacotherapy negatively affects the course and the outcome of schizophreniaspectrum psychoses, enhancing the risk of relapse. Falloon and coworkers developed a Psychoeducation Program aimed at improving communication and problem-solving abilities in patients and their families. This study set out to evaluate changes in adherence to pharmacotherapy in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia-spectrum psychoses, by comparing one group exposed to the Falloon Psychoeducation Program (FPP) with another group exposed to family supportive therapy with generic information on the disorders.Methods: 340 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and related disorders according to standardized criteria from 10 participating units distributed throughout the Italian National Health System (NHS), will be enrolled with 1:1 allocation by the method of blocks of randomized permutations. Patients will be reassessed at 6, 12 and 18 months after start of treatment (duration: 6 months). The primary objective is to evaluate changes in adherence to pharmacotherapy after psychoeducation. Adherence will be assessed at three-month intervals by measuring blood levels of the primary prescribed drug using high pressure liquid chromatography, and via the Medication Adherence Questionnaire and a modified version of the Adherence Interview. Secondary objectives are changes in the frequency of relapse and readmission, as the main indicator of the course of the disorder. Enrolled patients will be allocated to the FPP (yes/no) randomly, 1:1, in a procedure controlled by the coordinating unit; codes will be masked until the conclusion of the protocol (or the occurrence of a severe negative event). The raters will be blind to treatment allocation and will be tested for blinding after treatment completion. Intention-to-treat will be applied in considering the primary and secondary outcomes. Multiple imputations will be applied to integrate the missing data. The study started recruitment in February 2013; the total duration of the study is 27 months.Discussion: If the psychoeducation program proves effective in improving adherence to pharmacotherapy and in reducing relapse and readmissions, its application could be proposed as a standard adjunctive psychosocial treatment within the Italian NHS. Trial registration: Protocol Registration System of ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01433094; registered on 20 August 2011; first patient was randomized on 12 February 2013. © 2013 Petretto et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd