Extraction and Classification of Acoustic Features from Italian Speaking Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are a group of complex developmental conditions whose effects and severity show high intraindividual variability. However, one of the main symptoms shared along the spectrum is social interaction impairments that can be explored through acoustic analysis of speech production. In this paper, we compare 14 Italian-speaking children with ASD and 14 typically developing peers. Accordingly, we extracted and selected the acoustic features related to prosody, quality of voice, loudness, and spectral distribution using the parameter set eGeMAPS provided by the openSMILE feature extraction toolkit. We implemented four supervised machine learning methods to evaluate the extraction performances. Our findings show that Decision Trees (DTs) and Support Vector Machines (SVMs) are the best-performing methods. The overall DT models reach a 100% recall on all the trials, meaning they correctly recognise autistic features. However, half of its models overfit, while SVMs are more consistent. One of the results of the work is the creation of a speech pipeline to extract Italian speech biomarkers typical of ASD by comparing our results with studies based on other languages. A better understanding of this topic can support clinicians in diagnosing the disorder

Strobilurin Effects on Nitrogen Use Efficiency for the Yield and Protein in Durum Wheat Grown under Rainfed Mediterranean Conditions

In wheat, the increase in nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and optimization of the nitrogen doses to be used are both very important aspects for improving sustainable and productive agriculture. The aim of this study was to investigate, under rainfed Mediterranean conditions, the influence of strobilurin treatment and N fertilization on durum wheat N use efficiency for yield (NUEy) and protein (NUEp) and on the contribution of their components, nitrogen uptake efficiency (UPE) and nitrogen utilization efficiency (NUtE). Two durum wheat cultivars (Saragolla and Sfinge) were grown for two years in field conditions under five nitrogen treatments (60 kg ha−1 N60; 90 and 120 kg ha−1 given two and three times; N90, N90T3, N120 and N120T3) comparing a control without strobilurin treatment (ST0) and one application of strobilurin (STaz). In Sfinge, STaz caused a decrease in UPE and NUEp and an increase in NUtE and NUEy. In Saragolla, the opposite behavior was observed. Moreover, strobilurin positively affected the contribution of UPE and negatively that of NUtE to NUEy only in Saragolla. Furthermore, strobilurin determined higher NUEy and NUEp values under most of the N treatments adopted in the drier year. With this study, we supported the hypothesis that in Mediterranean conditions, the possibility of reducing N rate application from 120 to 90 kg ha−1 with a strobilurin-based treatment, even in the absence of fungal diseases, could represent a useful agronomic strategy for durum wheat grown under drought conditions as those predicted under the ongoing climate change

Real-time monitoring of cell protrusion dynamics by impedance responses

Cellular protrusions are highly dynamic structures involved in fundamental processes, including cell migration and invasion. For a cell to migrate, its leading edge must form protrusions, and then adhere or retract. The spatial and temporal coordination of protrusions and retraction is yet to be fully understood. The study of protrusion dynamics mainly relies on live-microscopy often coupled to fluorescent labeling. Here we report the use of an alternative, label-free, quantitative and rapid assay to analyze protrusion dynamics in a cell population based on the real-time recording of cell activity by means of electronic sensors. Cells are seeded on a plate covered with electrodes and their shape changes map into measured impedance variations. Upon growth factor stimulation the impedance increases due to protrusive activity and decreases following retraction. Compared to microscopy-based methods, impedance measurements are suitable to high-throughput studies on different cell lines, growth factors and chemical compounds. We present data indicating that this assay lends itself to dissect the biochemical signaling pathways controlling adhesive protrusions. Indeed, we show that the protrusion phase is sustained by actin polymerization, directly driven by growth factor stimulation. Contraction instead mainly relies on myosin action, pointing at a pivotal role of myosin in lamellipodia retraction

A Retrospective Case Series in Fournier’s Disease. And Its Emergency Management et Grafting Technique for Penis Coverage

Fournier’s gangrene is a necrotizing soft tissue infection of the genital, perineal, and perirectal areas. A primary isolated involvement of the penis is rare, but it can be elected in some circumstances. •epurpose ofthiscase series isto present the …ndings of our thirteen years’ experience in the reconstruction of the penis in Fournier’s gangrene and our full-thickness grafting technique to cover the penis rod. We retrospectively reviewed patient data who underwent a penis reconstruction following Fournier’s gangrene in 2018. •e data was analyzed to report the estimated percentage of complications, of patients with primary or secondary gangrene of the penis, the number of reinterventions, and …nally the percentage of deaths or recovery. 23 patients underwent reconstruction with our technique of full-thickness skin graft. In all cases, the skin graft was harvested from the upper armwith anarrow shapemark. Nofurther penile revision surgery was required, and neither patient complained about retraction, nor traction, or pain during erection. •e donor site healed without any complications. We believe that the coverage of the penis using our grafting technique is safe, easily reproducible, and demonstrates excellent esthetic and functional results

Unintentional injuries and potential determinants of falls in young children: Results from the Piccolipiù Italian birth cohort

Objectives: Unintentional injuries such as falls, are particularly frequent in early childhood. To date, epidemiological studies in this field have been carried out using routine data sources or registries and many studies were observational studies with a cross-sectional design. The aims of the study are to describe unintentional injuries in the first two years of life in the Piccolipiù birth cohort, and to investigate the association between mother and children characteristics and the First Event of Raised surface Fall (FERF). Methods: This longitudinal observational study included 3038 children from an Italian birth cohort. Data on socio-demographic factors, socio-economic indicators, maternal health and lifestyle characteristics and child’s sleeping behavior, obtained from questionnaires completed at birth, 12 and 24 months of age, were considered in the analyses as potential risk factors of FERF. Time of occurrence of FERF was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method. The multivariable analysis for time to event was carried out using a Cox proportional hazards model. Results: Falls from raised surfaces are the leading cause of unintentional injuries in the cohort with 610 (21.1%) and 577 (20.0%) cases among children during the first and second year of life, respectively. An increased risk of FERF was associated with several risk factors: maternal psychological distress (HR 1.41, 95%CI 1.10-1.81), maternal alcohol intake (HR 1.26, 95%CI 1.10-1.45), and child’s sleeping problems (HR 1.28, 95%CI 1.09-1.51). Children with older aged mothers (HR 0.98, 95%CI 0.96–0.99) and living in northern Italy (HR 0.64, 95%CI 0.55-0.75) had a lower risk of FERF. Conclusion: The results of the study suggest that a higher risk of FERF is associated with socio-demographic factors, maternal characteristics and child sleeping behavior that could hinder parent empowerment

Plasma concentration of presepsin and its relationship to the diagnosis of infections in multiple trauma patients admitted to intensive care

Background and aims: Septic complications represent the pre- dominant cause of late death in poly-trauma patients. The necessi- ty to differentiate septic from non septic patients is more relevant at the early stage of the illness in order to improve the clinical out- come and to reduce the mortality. The identification of a sensitive and specific, clinically reliable, biomarker capable to early recog- nize incoming septic complications in trauma patients whose expression is not influenced by concomitant traumatic injuries, is still a challenge for the researchers in the field. patients (9 females and 39 males, mean age 47.6\ub119 years) with mul- tiple trauma was performed. The inclusion criterion was to suffer from acute trauma since no more than 24 hours and the exclusion cri- teria were the following: antibiotic treatment on admission and main- tained for more than 48 hours; on-going infection on admission not associated with trauma; treatment with immunosuppressors/ immunomodulants; age <18 years old. Presepsin was measured using an automated chemiluminescence analyser at 1, 3, 5 and 8 days post of hospitalization. The diagnosis of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS)/infection was established according to the criteria of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign. Materials and methods: A retrospective analysis on 48 adult Results and conclusions: In patients with SIRS, the mean pre- sepsin concentration was 917,08 (\ub169.042) ng/L vs 980,258 (\ub11951.32) ng/L in patients without SIRS (P=0.769). In the infected patients, the mean presepsin concentration was 1513.25 (\ub12296.54) ng/L vs 654.21 (\ub1511,068) ng/L (P<0.05) calculated among the non infected upon admission. The plasma presepsin concentration increased progressively during the first 8 days of hospitalization. Presepsin concentration in the infected patients was significantly higher than in non-infected patients. On the other hands no signifi- cant differences were found in the plasma level of presepsin among patients with and without SIRS. Any other clinical condition related to the trauma did not affect presepsin. Our data clearly suggest that presepsin may be considered an helpful diagnostic tool to early diagnose sepsis in trauma patients