The marketing of Mussolini : American magazines and Mussolini, 1922-1935

Until the Halo-Ethiopian War, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and the American press had a symbiotic relationship. Mussolini used his charisma and journalistic skills to put himself in the limelight of the American foreign press, and whether they loved him or hated him, American periodicals relished the constant flow of news and sensationalism from Rome. This analysis examines the rise of Fascism and Mussolini in Italy and his efforts to market himself to the press, especially the American press. It then reviews American magazines from 1922 until Italy\u27s invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 and their varying attitudes toward II Duce. Popular and business magazines tended to favor Mussolini, whereas high-brow journals generally did not, but these trends were not universal. Regardless, American magazines thrived off of the Mussolini phenomenon, and Mussolini used that relationship to his fullest advantage

Lung transplantation and mortality in patients with cystic fibrosis under oxygen therapy

Objectives: There are few studies about survival in patients with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) under oxygen therapy (OT). Considering its clinical meaning and impact on patients\u2019 lifestyle, we aimed to determine how OT is associated with known prognostic factors and with lung transplantation (LTx) and death (D). Methods:We considered patients 6450 years registered in the ECFSPR from 2008 to 2017. An illness-death multi-state model was fitted, denoting LTx as intermediate state. Cox\u2019s proportional hazard models were fitted using age as time scale and left truncation corresponding to age at entry into ECFSPR. Models were used to estimate transition intensities and OT hazard ratio (HR), adjusted for known prognostic factors (age, sex, insulin, Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Pa), Burkholderia cepacia (BC), BMI and FEV1% predicted). Results: 58576 patients were included in the analysis and 7627 (13%) had OT during the follow-up. 27587 (47.6%) were females, 35784 (61.1%) were <18 yrs old, 5228 (10.6%) had FEV1 <40%predicted, 5185 (9.5%) were underweight (BMI z score < 122), 6386 (10.9%) used insulin, 14037 (26.9%) had Pa, 1236 (2.4%) had BC. During the follow-up, 2509 patients had LTx and 3091 patients died: 2338 before and 753 after LTx. From the multi-state model, patients in OT have higher probability of having LTx (HR = 12.9, 95% CI: 11.6\u201314.4). The HRof death for patients in OT is 7.8 (95% CI: 6.9\u20138.7) before LTX, while it is 1.4 (95% CI: 1.2\u20131.7) after LTx. Conclusions: The need for oxygen therapy represents a turning point in patients\u2019 life, decreasing their chances of survival, with implications in the post LTX period yet. UndoubtedlyOT should be considered as a marker of CF disease severity, and patients with a supplemental oxygen requirement should have prompt and fully clinical reassessment. Preventing respiratory failure with oxygen requirement remains one of the main goals of CF care

Thymomas: a review.

Thymomas are neoplasma of thymic epithelial cells. They may be benign or malignant and may associate with locai ìnvasiveness and paraneoplastic diseases. Myasthenia gravis is often associated with thymomas, bui this is not thè rule. Several classifications have been proposed: some of them follow thè histopathological findings (Rosai and Levine, Snover, Marino and Muller- Hermelink classification), other emphasizes thè clinic-pathological stage (Masaoka, Verley and Hollmann stadiation). One third of thymomas is asymptomatic. Diagnosis is made often by plain X-ray and confirmed by Computed Tomography or fine needle biopsy. Surgery is effective in 100% of noninvasive cases and in 58% of invasive ones. Radio and chemotherapy are recommended only in advanced or inoperable stages

The non-indigenous Paranthura japonica Richardson, 1909 in the Mediterranean Sea: travelling with shellfish?

An anthurid isopod new to the Mediterranean Sea has recently been observed in samples from three localities of the Italian coast: the Lagoon of Venice (North Adriatic Sea), La Spezia (Ligurian Sea) and Olbia (Sardinia, Tyrrhenian Sea). The specimens collected showed strong affinity to a species originally described from the NW Pacific Ocean: Paranthura japonica Richardson, 1909. The comparison with specimens collected from the Bay of Arcachon (Atlantic coast of France), where P. japonica had been recently reported as non-indigenous, confirmed the identity of the species. This paper reports the most relevant morphological details of the Italian specimens, data on the current distribution of the species and a discussion on the pathways responsible for its introduction. The available data suggest that the presence of this Pacific isopod in several regions of coastal Europe might be due to a series of aquaculture-mediated introduction events that occurred during the last decades of the 1900s. Since then, established populations of P. japonica, probably misidentified, remained unnoticed for a long time

Exercise-induced mitral regurgitation and right ventricle to pulmonary circulation uncoupling across the heart failure phenotypes

Exercise-induced mitral regurgitation (Ex-MR) is one of the mechanisms that contribute to reduced functional capacity in heart failure (HF). Its prevalence is not well defined across different HF subtypes. The aim of the present study was to describe functional phenotypes and cardiac response to exercise in HFrEF, HFmrEF, and HFpEF, according to Ex-MR prevalence. A total of 218 patients with HF [146 men, 68 (59–78) yr], 137 HFrEF, 41 HFmrEF, 40 HFpEF, and 23 controls were tested with cardiopulmonary exercise test combined with exercise echocardiography. Ex-MR was defined as development of at least moderate (≥2+/4+) regurgitation during exercise. Ex-MR was highly prevalent in the overall population (52%) although differed in the subgroups as follows: 82/137 (60%) in HFrEF, 17/41 (41%) in HFmrEF, and 14/40 (35%) in HFpEF (P < 0.05). Ex-MR was associated with a high rate of ventilation (VE) to carbon dioxide production (VCO2) in all HF subtypes [31.2 (26.6–35.6) vs. 33.4 (29.6–40.5), P = 0.004; 28.1 (24.5–31.9) vs. 34.4 (28.2–36.7), P = 0.01; 28.8 (26.6–32.4) vs. 32.2 (29.2–36.7), P = 0.01] and with lower peak VO2 in HFrEF and HFmrEF. Exercise right ventricle to pulmonary circulation (RV-PC) uncoupling was observed in HFrEF and HFpEF patients with Ex-MR [peak TAPSE/SPAP: HFrEF 0.40 (0.30–0.57) vs. 0.29 (0.23–0.39), P = 0.006; HFpEF 0.44 (0.28–0.62) vs. 0.31 (0.27–0.33), P = 0.05]. HFpEF with Ex-MR showed a distinct phenotype characterized by better chronotropic reserve and peripheral O2 extraction

The Relationship between Socioeconomic Status and Narrative Abilities in a Group of Italian Normally Developing Children

OBJECTIVE: Only limited and conflicting information is available regarding the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and narrative abilities. Besides, the role fathers' SES plays in the development of their children's narrative abilities has never been investigated. The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between fathers' and mothers' SES and narrative abilities of their children assessed with the Italian version of the Bus Story Test (I-BST). SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A total of 505 normally developing Italian children were enrolled in the study. Information regarding parents' educational level and employment was collected for each child. Narrative abilities were evaluated using the I-BST. The relationships between parents' employment, educational level, and I-BST scores were analyzed by univariate and multivariate regression analysis. RESULTS: In univariate analysis, both fathers' and mothers' education and employment were associated with most I-BST subscale scores, especially when higher educational and employment levels were contrasted with the lowest educational and employment levels. In multiple regression analysis, significant associations were found only between the fathers' working status and educational level and I-BST subscale scores. CONCLUSIONS: Parental education and employment might impact narrative abilities of children. When both fathers' and mothers' SES variables are considered together, only fathers' education and working status seemed to be associated with I-BST scores

Estimate risk difference and number needed to treat in survival analysis

The hazard ratio (HR) is a measure of instantaneous relative risk of an increase in one unit of the covariate of interest, which is widely reported in clinical researches involving time-to-event data. However, the measure fails to capture absolute risk reduction. Other measures such as number needed to treat (NNT) and risk difference (RD) provide another perspective on the effectiveness of an intervention, and can facilitate clinical decision making. The article aims to provide a step-by-step tutorial on how to compute RD and NNT in survival analysis with R. For simplicity, only one measure (RD or NNT) needs to be illustrated, because the other measure is a reverse of the illustrated one (NNT=1/RD). An artificial dataset is composed by using the survsim package. RD and NNT are estimated with Austin method after fitting a Cox-proportional hazard regression model. The confidence intervals can be estimated using bootstrap method. Alternatively, if the standard errors (SEs) of the survival probabilities of the treated and control group are given, confidence intervals can be estimated using algebraic calculations. The pseudo-value model provides another method to estimate RD and NNT. Details of R code and its output are shown and explained in the main text

First-line imatinib vs second- and third-generation TKIs for chronic-phase CML: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Imatinib, the first tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), improves overall survival (OS), but the introduction of newer TKIs requires the definition of the optimal first-line TKI for newly diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) chronic-phase (CP) CML. This systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) compares the efficacy and safety of imatinib vs second-generation (dasatinib, nilotinib, bosutinib) and third-generation TKIs (ponatinib) in adults with newly diagnosed Ph+ CP CML, concentrating on OS, progression-free survival (PFS), and hematological and nonhematological adverse events. The quality of the evidence was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) method. Seven RCTs published between 1990 and 2019 (involving 3262 participants) satisfied the eligibility criteria. Two RCTs (imatinib vs nilotinib and imatinib vs dasatinib) found no difference in 5-year OS or PFS. Second- and third-generation TKIs improved 3-month major molecular responses (relative risk [RR], 4.28; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.20-8.32) and other efficacy outcomes, decreased accelerated/blastic-phase transformations (RR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.26-0.74), but were associated with more cases of thrombocytopenia (RR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.20-2.05), cardiovascular events (RR, 2.54; 95% CI, 1.49-4.33), and pancreatic (RR, 2.29; 95% CI, 1.32-3.96) and hepatic effects (RR, 3.51; 95% CI 1.55-7.92). GRADE showed that the certainty of the evidence ranged from high to moderate. This study shows that, in comparison with imatinib, second- and third-generation TKIs improve clinical responses, but the safer toxicity profile of imatinib may make it a better option for patients with comorbidities