Delivery of a Certified E-mail Service over the Digital Terrestrial Television Platform

At present, the electronic mail service is probably the most widespread and commonly used asynchronous way of exchanging information among people, thanks to its immediacy and easiness of use. Information delivered through E-mail can be sensitive or confidential: ensuring the sender’s identity and providing privacy has become a vital step in stopping spam, fraud and even more serious crimes. To this aim, public entities have adopted Certified E-mail systems to manage secure interactions with citizens. Digital Terrestrial Television introduced new facilities in the traditional broadcasting environment, and determined the transition of several Electronic based-services to Television basedservices. The availability of commercial Set Top Boxes equipped with network interfaces and smart card readers enables the provisioning of personalized interactive TV services, requiring user’s identification and authentication, that still represent open issues in the TV context. In this paper we discuss the challenges of a Certified E-mail service over Digital Terrestrial Television, and present the case study of the Italian Regione Marche, in which this service is under development to support the remote request of certificates issued by the public administration. In particular, our attention is devoted to user authentication and secure access to the administrative services, addressed through the use of a Regional Service Card, an interactive application, and a centralized authentication framework

Retrograde Cricopharyngeus Dysfunction effectively treated with low dose botulinum toxin. A case report from Italy

A large constellation of hitherto unexplained symptoms including inability to burp, gurgling noises from the chest and lower neck, abdominal bloating, flatulence, painful hiccups and emetophobia was defined as Retrograde Cricopharyngeus Dysfunction (R-CPD) in 2019. First choice treatment of R-CPD involves injection of botulinum toxin into the cricopharyngeus muscle under local or general anesthesia. This treatment has been found to be effective in the vast majority of subjects, with limited adverse events and prolonged therapeutic effects. Notwithstanding, R-CPD is still a poorly understood and underestimated disease, and a specific therapeutic dosage range of botulinum toxin (BT) has not been yet established. In this report, we describe the first case of R-CPD diagnosed in Italy, successfully treated with unilateral, anesthesia-free injection of 10 units of onabotulinum toxin into the cricopharyngeus muscle, representing the lowest dose reported to date

[Epidemiology and surveillance of hepatitis E in Italy: data from the SEIEVA surveillance system 2007-2019]

hepatitis E is a disease spread all over the world, with endemic levels varying according to ecological and socioeconomic factors. In developing countries, large epidemics spread mainly through contaminated water; in developed countries, hepatitis E has always been considered a sporadic disease, closely associated to the travels to endemic areas, especially in Southeastern Asia. In the last years, this perception is significantly changing, because of an increasing number of autochthonous cases reported in many European countries

Acute Delta Hepatitis in Italy spanning three decades (1991–2019): Evidence for the effectiveness of the hepatitis B vaccination campaign

Updated incidence data of acute Delta virus hepatitis (HDV) are lacking worldwide. Our aim was to evaluate incidence of and risk factors for acute HDV in Italy after the introduction of the compulsory vaccination against hepatitis B virus (HBV) in 1991. Data were obtained from the National Surveillance System of acute viral hepatitis (SEIEVA). Independent predictors of HDV were assessed by logistic-regression analysis. The incidence of acute HDV per 1-million population declined from 3.2 cases in 1987 to 0.04 in 2019, parallel to that of acute HBV per 100,000 from 10.0 to 0.39 cases during the same period. The median age of cases increased from 27 years in the decade 1991-1999 to 44 years in the decade 2010-2019 (p < .001). Over the same period, the male/female ratio decreased from 3.8 to 2.1, the proportion of coinfections increased from 55% to 75% (p = .003) and that of HBsAg positive acute hepatitis tested for by IgM anti-HDV linearly decreased from 50.1% to 34.1% (p < .001). People born abroad accounted for 24.6% of cases in 2004-2010 and 32.1% in 2011-2019. In the period 2010-2019, risky sexual behaviour (O.R. 4.2; 95%CI: 1.4-12.8) was the sole independent predictor of acute HDV; conversely intravenous drug use was no longer associated (O.R. 1.25; 95%CI: 0.15-10.22) with this. In conclusion, HBV vaccination was an effective measure to control acute HDV. Intravenous drug use is no longer an efficient mode of HDV spread. Testing for IgM-anti HDV is a grey area requiring alert. Acute HDV in foreigners should be monitored in the years to come

Certificazione delle conoscenze informatiche nell'Universit\ue0 italiana

L\u2019articolo discute l\u2019importanza delle competenze e conoscenze informatiche nella formazione universitaria e il ruolo della certificazione di queste competenze. Dopo un esame della situazione italiana riguardo alle competenze informatiche, l\u2019articolo analizza le attivit\ue0 svolte nel recente passato dalle Universit\ue0 e presenta le principali linee evolutive rese disponibili da AICA nell\u2019ambito delle certificazioni informatiche