ODINet - Online Data Integration Network

Along with the expansion of Open Data and according to the latest EU directives for open access, the attention of public administration, research bodies and business is on web publishing of data in open format. However, a specialized search engine on the datasets, with similar role to that of Google for web pages, is not yet widespread. This article presents the Online Data Integration Network (ODINet) project, which aims to define a new technological framework for access to and online dissemination of structured and heterogeneous data through innovative methods of cataloging, searching and display of data on the web. In this article, we focus on the semantic component of our platform, emphasizing how we built and used ontologies. We further describe the Social Network Analysis (SNA) techniques we exploited to analyze it and to retrieve the required information. The testing phase of the project, that is still in progress, has already demonstrated the validity of the ODINet approach

ODINet un framework innovativo per l\u27accesso e la diffusione on-line di dati strutturati ed eterogenei

ODINet is a research and development project, approved as part of the Regional Operational Programme through the European Regional Development Fund 2007-2013. The project involves the construction of a semantic search engine prototype able to catalog the data in a ontological graph, to extract the most relevant information depending on user requests and return them in a highly usable way. The application domain concerns the social, economic and health, in order to cover most of the data held by public bodies in the national context. The focus of this report is in the first place the description of the semantic components of the platform, emphasizing how the ontologies have been used to build an index in the form of graph. We also present a description of our semantic searches and finally an analysis of the results obtained in the final stage of the ODINEt prototype testing

Le nuove emigrazioni qualificate. Studio di caso sui laureati dell'ateneo pisano che sono migrati all'estero

A partire dai risultati di un'indagine empirica realizzata presso l'Università di Pisa, il contributo si configura come un'analisi critica dei processi di strutturazione delle traiettorie personali e professionali di un campione di giovani laureati espatriati, identificando i principali fattori di spinta all'emigrazione, le strategie e i modelli della loro integrazione all'estero, le reti di collegamento intrattenute con i territori e le comunità di origine, le loro aspirazioni future

"Delirium Day": A nationwide point prevalence study of delirium in older hospitalized patients using an easy standardized diagnostic tool

Background: To date, delirium prevalence in adult acute hospital populations has been estimated generally from pooled findings of single-center studies and/or among specific patient populations. Furthermore, the number of participants in these studies has not exceeded a few hundred. To overcome these limitations, we have determined, in a multicenter study, the prevalence of delirium over a single day among a large population of patients admitted to acute and rehabilitation hospital wards in Italy. Methods: This is a point prevalence study (called "Delirium Day") including 1867 older patients (aged 65 years or more) across 108 acute and 12 rehabilitation wards in Italian hospitals. Delirium was assessed on the same day in all patients using the 4AT, a validated and briefly administered tool which does not require training. We also collected data regarding motoric subtypes of delirium, functional and nutritional status, dementia, comorbidity, medications, feeding tubes, peripheral venous and urinary catheters, and physical restraints. Results: The mean sample age was 82.0 ± 7.5 years (58 % female). Overall, 429 patients (22.9 %) had delirium. Hypoactive was the commonest subtype (132/344 patients, 38.5 %), followed by mixed, hyperactive, and nonmotoric delirium. The prevalence was highest in Neurology (28.5 %) and Geriatrics (24.7 %), lowest in Rehabilitation (14.0 %), and intermediate in Orthopedic (20.6 %) and Internal Medicine wards (21.4 %). In a multivariable logistic regression, age (odds ratio [OR] 1.03, 95 % confidence interval [CI] 1.01-1.05), Activities of Daily Living dependence (OR 1.19, 95 % CI 1.12-1.27), dementia (OR 3.25, 95 % CI 2.41-4.38), malnutrition (OR 2.01, 95 % CI 1.29-3.14), and use of antipsychotics (OR 2.03, 95 % CI 1.45-2.82), feeding tubes (OR 2.51, 95 % CI 1.11-5.66), peripheral venous catheters (OR 1.41, 95 % CI 1.06-1.87), urinary catheters (OR 1.73, 95 % CI 1.30-2.29), and physical restraints (OR 1.84, 95 % CI 1.40-2.40) were associated with delirium. Admission to Neurology wards was also associated with delirium (OR 2.00, 95 % CI 1.29-3.14), while admission to other settings was not. Conclusions: Delirium occurred in more than one out of five patients in acute and rehabilitation hospital wards. Prevalence was highest in Neurology and lowest in Rehabilitation divisions. The "Delirium Day" project might become a useful method to assess delirium across hospital settings and a benchmarking platform for future surveys