Il LAC quale esperienza formativa e didattica nel corso di laurea in Scienze della Formazione

La ricerca si prefigge di effettuare una riflessione sulla modalit\ue0 didattica del Laboratorio di Addestramento alla Comunicazione (LAC) quale unit\ue0 didattica autonoma e conclusa, e di verificare la validit\ue0 dei parametri individuati per la valutazione degli apprendimenti relativi ai contenuti e alla formazione al lavoro in piccolo gruppo. Il LAC \ue8 una esperienza didattica inserita nel curriculum universitario degli studenti della facolt\ue0 di SFP che, in modulo di breve estensione, si prefigge di: a) trasmettere conoscenze; b) far sperimentare il lavoro in un sistema organizzato complesso come l\u2019istituzione scolastica; c) utilizzare una valutazione trasparente e articolata

Predictors of complementary feeding practices in Afghanistan: Analysis of the 2015 Demographic and Health Survey.

Despite improvements over the past 20 years, high burdens of child mortality and undernutrition still coexist in Afghanistan. Global evidence indicates that complementary feeding (CF) practices predict child survival and nutritional status. Our study aims to describe CF practices in Afghanistan and to discern underlying predictors of CF by analysing data from Afghanistan's 2015 Demographic and Healthy Survey. Multilevel models were constructed comprising potential predictors at individual, household, and community levels and four CF indicators: timely introduction of solid, semi-solid, or soft foods (INTRO), minimum meal frequency (MMF), minimum dietary diversity (MDD), and minimum acceptable diet (MAD) among breastfed children. INTRO prevalence among children aged 6-8 months was 56%, whereas the prevalence of MMF, MDD, and MAD among children aged 6-23 months was 55%, 23%, and 18%, respectively. Of the seven food groups considered, four were consumed by 20% or fewer children: eggs (20%), legumes and nuts (18%), fruits and vegetables (15%), and flesh foods (14%). Increasing child age and more antenatal care visits were significantly and positively associated with greater odds of meeting all CF indicators. Lower household wealth and lower community-level access to health care services were associated with lower odds of MDD and MAD. Disparities in achieving recommended CF practices were observed by region. CF practices in Afghanistan are poor and significant socioeconomic inequities in CF are observed across the country. Our study calls for urgent policy and programme attention to improve complementary feeding practices as an intrinsic part of the national development agenda

Stagnating trends in complementary feeding practices in Bangladesh: An analysis of national surveys from 2004-2014.

Bangladesh has experienced steady socio-economic development. However, improvements in child growth have not kept pace. It is important to document complementary feeding (CF) practices-a key determinant of children's growth-and their trends over time. The study aims to examine trends in CF practices in children aged 6-23 months using data from Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in 2004, 2007, 2011, and 2014. Multilevel logistic regression models were applied to identify independent predictors of four CF practice indicators among children 6-23 months, namely, timely introduction of complementary foods, minimum meal frequency, minimum dietary diversity, and minimum acceptable diet. Introduction of complementary foods was achieved among 64-71% of children between 2004 and 2014. The proportion meeting minimum meal frequency increased from 2004 to 2007 (71-81%) and declined and held steady at 65% from 2011 to 2014. The proportion meeting minimum dietary diversity in 2011 and 2014 was low (25% and 28%), and so was minimum acceptable diet (19% and 20%). From 2007 to 2014, child dietary diversity decreased and the most decline was in the consumption of legumes and nuts (29% to 8%), vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables (54% to 41%), and other fruits and vegetables (47% to 20%). Young child age (6-11 months), poor parental education, household poverty, and residence in the Chittagong and Sylhet independently predicted poorer feeding practices. Dietary diversity and overall diet in Bangladeshi children are strikingly poor. Stagnation or worsening of feeding practices in the past decade are concerning and call for decisive policy and programme action to address inappropriate child feeding practices

Trends and predictors of appropriate complementary feeding practices in Nepal: An analysis of national household survey data collected between 2001 and 2014.

There is evidence that suboptimal complementary feeding contributes to poor child growth. However, little is known about time trends and determinants of complementary feeding in Nepal, where the prevalence of child undernutrition remains unacceptably high. The objective of the study was to examine the trends and predictors of suboptimal complementary feeding in Nepali children aged 6-23 months using nationally representative data collected from 2001 to 2014. Data from the 2001, 2006, and 2011 Nepal Demographic and Health Surveys and the 2014 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey were used to estimate the prevalence, trends and predictors of four WHO-UNICEF complementary feeding indicators: timely introduction of complementary foods (INTRO), minimum meal frequency (MMF), minimum dietary diversity (MDD), and minimum acceptable diet (MAD). We used multilevel logistic regression models to identify independent factors associated with these indicators at the individual, household and community levels. In 2014, the weighted proportion of children meeting INTRO, MMF, MDD, and MAD criteria were 72%, 82%, 36% and 35%, respectively, with modest average annual rate of increase ranging from 1% to 2%. Increasing child age, maternal education, antenatal visits, and community-level access to health care services independently predicted increasing odds of achieving MMF, MDD, and MAD. Practices also varied by ecological zone and sociocultural group. Complementary feeding practices in Nepal have improved slowly in the past 15 years. Inequities in the risk of inappropriate complementary feeding are evident, calling for programme design and implementation to address poor feeding and malnutrition among the most vulnerable Nepali children

Flux creep in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8(sub +x) single crystals

The results of a magnetic study on a Bi2Sr2CaCu2O(8+x) single crystal are reported. Low field susceptibility (dc and ac), magnetization cycles and time dependent measurements were performed. With increasing the temperature the irreversible regime of the magnetization cycles is rapidly restricted to low fields, showing that the critical current J(sub c) becomes strongly field dependent well below T(sub c). At 2.4 K the critical current in zero field, determined from the remanent magnetization by using the Bean formula for the critical state, is J(sub c) = 2 10(exp 5) A/sq cm. The temperature dependence of J(sub c) is satisfactorily described by the phenomenological law J(sub c) = J(sub c) (0) (1 - T/T(sub c) (sup n), with n = 8. The time decay of the zero field cooled magnetization and of the remanent magnetization was studied at different temperatures for different magnetic fields. The time decay was found to be logarithmic in both cases, at least at low temperatures. At T = 4.2 K for a field of 10 kOe applied parallel to the c axis, the average pinning energy, determined by using the flux creep model, is U(sub o) = 0.010 eV

Lucerne meal in the diet of indigenous chickens: a review

Indigenous chicken production consists of an array of activities important to smallholder poultry farmers in Africa. One of the many factors influencing their production and threating the local food security is in the area of nutrition, particularly, that related to protein supplementation. The available feed resources to farmers are not enough to sustain the productivity of the chickens. Hence, the chickens’ diets often require nutritional supplementation. There is therefore an urgent need for the validation of locally grown feed ingredients to improve the sustainability of poultry production in sub-Saharan Africa. A dietary ingredient that may be used in the diets of chickens is lucerne (Medicago sativa), which is also known as alfalfa. In South Africa, lucerne is the most cultivated forage legume and approximately 1.3 million metric tonnes of lucerne are produced per year. Lucerne has high nutritional value, as it is a source of protein, amino acids, vitamins, and fatty acids. The potential of lucerne as a feed resource for indigenous chickens should, therefore, be investigated so that strategies to improve the nutrition of such chickens can be developed. The purpose of this review was to highlight lucerne as a potential dietary ingredient for indigenous chickens and discuss its effects on the productivity of broilers, egg-layers, and dual-purpose chickens

Can alexithymia be assessed through an interview in adolescents? The Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia: Reliability, concurrent validity, discriminant validity, and relationships with emotional-behavioral symptoms

Alexithymia is connected to adolescents' psychopathology, but the current methods of assessment present limitations. The Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia (TSIA) was developed to overcome the limits of the main used self-rating scale in adults, but no studies investigated its feasibility with adolescents. This study involved 95 community adolescents aged 12-19 years. Adolescents were assessed with the TSIA, the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Verbal Comprehension Index of the WISC-IV for verbal skills, and the Child Behavior Checklist and Youth Self Report for emotional-behavioral symptoms. The aims were to investigate the TSIA internal consistency, concurrent validity with the TAS-20, discriminant validity with participants' verbal skills, and relationships with emotional-behavioral symptoms. TSIA showed good internal consistency, concurrent validity with the TAS-20 (except for factor DDF), and independence by participants' verbal skills, but few relationships with emotional-behavioral symptoms. In conclusion, TSIA showed some good psychometric proprieties but little convergence with research findings obtained with the TAS-20, suggesting the need for further research to check the feasibility of using the TSIA with adolescents. Meanwhile, a precautionary multi-method assessment of alexithymia is recommended

Open ventral hernia repair with a composite ventral patch : final results of a multicenter prospective study

Background: This study assessed clinical outcomes, including safety and recurrence, from the two-year follow-up of patients who underwent open ventral primary hernia repair with the use of the Parietex (TM) Composite Ventral Patch (PCO-VP). Methods: A prospective single-arm, multicenter study of 126 patients undergoing open ventral hernia repair for umbilical and epigastric hernias with the PCO-VP was performed. Results: One hundred twenty-six subjects (110 with umbilical hernia and 16 with epigastric hernia) with a mean hernia diameter of 1.8cm (0.4-4.0) were treated with PCO-VP. One hundred subjects completed the two-year study. Cumulative hernia recurrence was 3.0% (3/101; 95%CI: 0.0-6.3%) within 24months. Median Numeric Rating Scale pain scores improved from 2 [0-10] at baseline to 0 [0-3] at 1 month (P<0.001) and remained low at 24months 0 [0-6] (P<0.001). 99% (102/103) of the patients were satisfied with their repair at 24months postoperative. Conclusions: The use of PCO-VP to repair primary umbilical and epigastric defects yielded a low recurrence rate, low postoperative and chronic pain, and high satisfaction ratings, confirming that PCO-VP is effective for small ventral hernia repair in the two-year term after implantation. Trial registration: The study was registered publically at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01848184 registered May 7, 2013)

Human exonuclease 1 role in response to UV irradiation

DNA damage checkpoints are surveillance mechanisms that monitor the integrity of the genome. Nucleotide excision repair (NER) is a DNA repair mechanism that cells use to remove UV-induced DNA lesions. Previous publication from our laboratory demonstrated that recognition and processing of UV-induced damage by NER is required for proper activation of checkpoint through interactions between NER proteins and checkpoint factors in yeast and human primary fibroblasts. From a two hybrid screening in yeast exonuclease 1 (Exo1) was identified as a 9-1-1 complex interactor. Exo1 is a 5\u2019-3\u2019 exonuclease and 5'-flap-endonuclease with many different roles in DNA metabolism such as meiotic and mitotic recombination, mismatch repair and telomere processing. Characterization of an exo1 yeast deleted strain has shown that this protein is involved in the early steps of UV-induced DNA damage checkpoint. In human cells EXO1 is present as two isoforms named hEXO1a and hEXO1b genetarated by alternative splicing. We are analyzing the role of EXO1 in checkpoint activation in response to UV-C damage in human cells: using siRNA against both a and b isoform of hEXO1 in G1 cells we were able to observe a defect in Chk1 and p53 phosphorylation induced by UV-C irradiation