Oltre l’era Covid-19: dall’emergenza alle prospettive di sviluppo professionale

The University was rapidly pushed into the era of distance teaching and learning (Dad) to cope with the imperative to ensure training for young people even in the lockdown period due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This necessity forced academics to a fast reconversion of traditional teaching into online learning environments for many still unknown and unusual. This has led to significant changes in the approaches and practices in use, favoring choices and solutions often not considered before. This research investigates the experience of distance teaching and learning (Dad), defining the concept, to investigate changes occurred in teaching practice, paying specific attention to the teaching mediation and to assessment, two areas considered foundational and emblematic in teaching-learning processes. 721 academics responded to an online questionnaire designed for this research; from the answers relevant changes in teaching and assessment methods emerged. Together with an increase of interest in the use of online practices, critical elements also emerged, such as the permanence of traditional models and innovation. Overall, the results seem to outline, although to different extents, the need to consider as central the professionalism of academics as a key factor to successfully reconvert the experience of Dad beyond the contingent moment.L’Università è entrata prepotentemente nell’era della didattica a distanza (DaD) per far fronte all’imperativo di garantire la formazione ai giovani anche nel periodo di lockdown imposto a seguito della pandemia del Covid-19. L’esperienza ha costretto la docenza ad una veloce riconversione della didattica tradizionale all’interno di modelli di azione on line per molti di loro sconosciuti e inusuali. Ciò ha determinato modificazioni significative negli approcci e nelle pratiche in uso, favorendo scelte e soluzioni spesso non considerate in precedenza. La ricerca indaga nello specifico l’esperienza della DaD, definendone il costrutto, per far emergere le modificazioni intervenute nella pratica didattica, ponendo un’attenzione particolare alla mediazione didattica e alla valutazione, due aree considerate fondative ed emblematiche nell’azione di insegnamento-apprendimento. Attraverso la somministrazione di un questionario on line a cui hanno risposto 721 docenti, si evidenziano le metamorfosi intervenute nell’azione di mediazione e di valutazione. Insieme ad un aumento di interesse verso l’utilizzo di pratiche on line compaiono elementi di criticità, connessi soprattutto al permanere di modelli tradizionali, e di innovazione, indotti dall’esigenza di offrire agli studenti un livello adeguato di qualità didattica per l’apprendimento. Nell’insieme gli esiti emersi sembrano profilare, sia pure con diverso grado di intensità, l’esigenza di considerare come centrale la professionalità del docente indicata quale fattore chiave per riconvertire positivamente l’esperienza della DaD oltre il portato contingente

Electrocardiogram Monitoring Wearable Devices and Artificial-Intelligence-Enabled Diagnostic Capabilities: A Review

Worldwide, population aging and unhealthy lifestyles have increased the incidence of high-risk health conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, sleep apnea, and other conditions. Recently, to facilitate early identification and diagnosis, efforts have been made in the research and development of new wearable devices to make them smaller, more comfortable, more accurate, and increasingly compatible with artificial intelligence technologies. These efforts can pave the way to the longer and continuous health monitoring of different biosignals, including the real-time detection of diseases, thus providing more timely and accurate predictions of health events that can drastically improve the healthcare management of patients. Most recent reviews focus on a specific category of disease, the use of artificial intelligence in 12-lead electrocardiograms, or on wearable technology. However, we present recent advances in the use of electrocardiogram signals acquired with wearable devices or from publicly available databases and the analysis of such signals with artificial intelligence methods to detect and predict diseases. As expected, most of the available research focuses on heart diseases, sleep apnea, and other emerging areas, such as mental stress. From a methodological point of view, although traditional statistical methods and machine learning are still widely used, we observe an increasing use of more advanced deep learning methods, specifically architectures that can handle the complexity of biosignal data. These deep learning methods typically include convolutional and recurrent neural networks. Moreover, when proposing new artificial intelligence methods, we observe that the prevalent choice is to use publicly available databases rather than collecting new data

A narrative review of the potential pharmacological influence and safety of ibuprofen on coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), ACE2, and the immune system: a dichotomy of expectation and reality

The coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic is currently the most acute healthcare challenge in the world. Despite growing knowledge of the nature of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), treatment options are still poorly defined. The safety of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), specifically ibuprofen, has been openly questioned without any supporting evidence or clarity over dose, duration, or temporality of administration. This has been further conflicted by the initiation of studies to assess the efficacy of ibuprofen in improving outcomes in severe COVID-19 patients. To clarify the scientific reality, a literature search was conducted alongside considerations of the pharmacological properties of ibuprofen in order to construct this narrative review. The literature suggests that double-blind, placebo-controlled study results must be reported and carefully analysed for safety and efficacy in patients with COVID-19 before any recommendations can be made regarding the use of ibuprofen in such patients. Limited studies have suggested: (i) no direct interactions between ibuprofen and SARS-CoV-2 and (ii) there is no evidence to suggest ibuprofen affects the regulation of angiotensin-converting-enzyme 2 (ACE2), the receptor for COVID-19, in human studies. Furthermore, in vitro studies suggest ibuprofen may facilitate cleavage of ACE2 from the membrane, preventing membrane-dependent viral entry into the cell, the clinical significance of which is uncertain. Additionally, in vitro evidence suggests that inhibition of the transcription factor nuclear factor-κB (NF-kB) by ibuprofen may have a role in reducing excess inflammation or cytokine release in COVID-19 patients. Finally, there is no evidence that ibuprofen will aggravate or increase the chance of infection of COVID-19

Molecular modelling and enzymatic studies of acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase recognition with paraquat and related compounds

The potent herbicide paraquat and three other analogues MPP+, MPDP+ and MPTP have a known toxicological profile linked to the ability to damage dopaminergic neurons. Other biological effects were recently addressed to this class of compounds, including the ability to interact with enzymatic targets involved in the Central Nervous System, such as the acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and the butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE). A combined molecular modelling and enzymatic study focusing onto their interaction against the AChE and BuChE is reported. The former study was performed by docking techniques using target known co-crystallographic models. The latter study was carried out by the widely adopted Ellman's method. In both studies the anti-Alzheimer FDA approved drug tacrine was used as reference inhibitor. Our results indicate that paraquat, MPTP, MPDP+ and MPP+ recognize both enzymatic cleft in a similar fashion compared to the reference inhibitor. A structure-activity correlation was found with the net charge of the ligands, indicating a major role of the electrostatic term in the recognition and inhibition of these compounds. Our data completed their enzymatic profile, added new information on the molecular mechanisms underlying their neurotoxicity useful for the rational design of new cholinesterase inhibitors

Cardiac involvement in hereditary-transthyretin related amyloidosis.

Hereditary transthyretin-related amyloidosis remains a widely underdiagnosed condition, owing to its extreme phenotypic variability: the clinical spectrum of the disease ranges from an almost exclusive neurologic involvement to strictly cardiac manifestations. This heterogeneity is linked to several factors including specific transthyretin mutations, geographic distribution and endemic vs. non-endemic aggregation type. The existence of exclusively or predominantly cardiac phenotypes makes the recognition of the disease very challenging since it can mimic other more common causes of left ventricular "hypertrophy". Assessment of such patients should include an active search for possible red flags that can indicate the correct final diagnosis