Feasibility of Screening Programs for Domestic Violence in Pediatric and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services: A Literature Review

Each year, 275 million children worldwide are exposed to domestic violence (DV) and suffer negative mental and physical health consequences; however, only a small proportion receive assistance. Pediatricians and child psychiatrists can play a central role in identifying threatened children. We reviewed experiences of DV screening in pediatric and child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) to understand its feasibility and provide clues for its implementation. We performed bibliographic research using the Sapienza Library System, PubMed, and the following databases: MEDLINE, American Psychological Association PsycArticles, American Psychological Association PsycInfo, ScienceDirect, and Scopus. We considered a 20-year interval when selecting the articles and we included studies published in English between January 2000 and March 2021. A total of 23 out of 2335 studies satisfied the inclusion criteria. We found that the prevalence of disclosed DV ranged from 4.2% to 48%, with most prevalence estimates between 10% and 20%. Disclosure increases with a detection plan, which is mostly welcomed by mothers (70-80% acceptance rates). Written tools were used in 55% of studies, oral interviews in 40%, and computer instruments in 20%. Mixed forms were used in three studies (15%). The most used and effective tool appeared to be the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) (30% of studies). For young children, parental reports are advisable and written instruments are the first preference; interviews can be conducted with older children. Our research pointed out that the current literature does not provide practical clinical clues on facilitating the disclosure in pediatric clinics and CAMHS. Further studies are needed on the inpatient population and in the field of children psychiatry

Large genomic aberrations detected by SNP array are independent prognosticators of a shorter time to first treatment in chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients with normal FISH

Background Genomic complexity can predict the clinical course of patients affected by chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) with a normal FISH. However, large studies are still lacking. Here, we analyzed a large series of CLL patients and also carried out the so far largest comparison of FISH versus single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array in this disease. Patients and methods SNP-array data were derived from a previously reported dataset. Results Seventy-seven of 329 CLL patients (23%) presented with a normal FISH. At least one large (>5 Mb) genomic aberration was detected by SNP array in 17 of 77 patients (22%); this finding significantly affected TTT. There was no correlation with the presence of TP53 mutations. In multivariate analysis, including age, Binet stage, IGHV genes mutational status and large genomic lesion, the latter three factors emerged as independent prognosticators. The concordance between FISH and SNP array varied between 84 and 97%, depending on the specific genomic locus investigated. Conclusions SNP array detected additional large genomic aberrations not covered by the standard FISH panel predicting the outcome of CLL patient

Dose-finding study of paclitaxel and cyclophosphamide in advanced breast cancer

Background The toxicity profile of prolonged infusions of paclitaxel in combination with cyclophosphamide in metastat-ic breast cancer has already been defined. The objective of this dose-finding study was to determine the maximum tolerable doses (MTDs) of shorter (three-hour) infusions of paclitaxel in combination with i.v. bolus cyclophosphamide in patients who had previously received a maximum of one chemotherapy for advanced breast carcinoma. The MTD of the same regimen with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) support was then established. Patients and methods Eighty women with metastatic breast cancer received a total of 352 fully evaluable courses of therapy. The starting doses were paclitaxel 135 mg/m2 and cyclophosphamide 750 mg/m2 given every three weeks. At least three patients were treated at each dose level and if there were dose-limiting toxic effects during the first cycles three additional patients were entered. G-CSF support (5 ug/kg s.c.) was added to the second cycle if specific dose-limiting toxicities had occurred during the first cycle. The MTD was defined as the dose level at which more than two of six patients presented dose-limiting toxicities during the first cycle. Results Febrile neutropenia (n = 4) and severe thrombo-cytopenia (n - 1) defined the MTDs of paclitaxel as 200 mg/m2 and of cyclophosphamide as 2,000 mg/m2 with or without G-CSF in patients with and, respectively, without prior chemotherapy for advanced disease. Non-hematologic toxicity was moderate. Recommended doses were 200 mg/m2 of paclitaxel and 1,750 mg/m2 of cyclophosphamide with or without G-CSF in patients with and, respectively, without prior chemotherapy. The overall response rate was 25% and 50%, respectively, in patients with and without prior chemotherapy for metastatic disease. Complete remissions (9%) were reported only in patients without prior chemotherapy; antitumour activity in women with anthracycline-resistant disease, with an 8% response rate (95% CI: 1%-26%), was poor. Conclusion Paclitaxel at 200 mg/m2 and cyclophosphamide at 1,750 mg/m2 can be safely administered every three weeks to women with advanced breast cancer. The moderate antitumour activity observed with the schedule tested argues against its use as initial therapy for advanced breast cance

Measurement of Dielectric Suppression of Bremsstrahlung

In 1953, Ter-Mikaelian predicted that the bremsstrahlung of low energy photons in a medium is suppressed because of interactions between the produced photon and the electrons in the medium. This suppression occurs because the emission takes place over on a long distance scale, allowing for destructive interference between different instantaneous photon emission amplitudes. We present here measurements of bremsstrahlung cross sections of 200 keV to 20 MeV photons produced by 8 and 25 GeV electrons in carbon and gold targets. Our data shows that dielectric suppression occurs at the predicted level, reducing the cross section up to 75 percent in our data.Comment: 11 pages, format is postscript file, gzip-ed, uuencode-e

PM10 source apportionment based on PMF and chemical tracers during different cruises in Western Mediterranean

In the Western Mediterranean Basin, frequently exposed to high levels of air pollutants, an important source of pollution which influence the emission, is the intensive ship traffic. The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC, EC) has started a long-term monitoring program along different years over the Mediterranean Sea based on observations from a cruise ship following a regular route in the Western Mediterranean, in collaboration with the Department of Physics of University of Genoa. In this framework, an intensive PM10 sampling campaign was organized in the summer of 2011, in order to fill in the gap of data recovered (in term of PM speciation) during the previous campaigns (Schembari et al., 2014) and to get a better and complete description of PM sources. During this campaign the route of the ship was Civitavecchia-Savona-Barcelona-Palma de Mallorca- Malta (Valletta)-Palermo-Civitavecchia (see Figure 1). The PM samples were collected on Quartz and Teflon filters (47mm diameter, flow rate 2.3 m3/h) using in parallel two Sven Leckel Ingenieurburo sequential samplers, placed on the top of the cabin where the monitoring and meteorological station was located. Samples were analyzed with different techniques: Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence at the Department of Physics of Genoa (Ariola et al, 2006); Ion Chromatography (Chow and Watson, 1999) at Department of Chemistry of University of Milan; Thermo-optical analysis (Birch and Cary, 1996) at the JRC laboratory. Ion Beam Analysis measurements of the Teflon filters sampled during the week of September 2011, using simultaneously PIXE, EBS and PESA techniques (Chiari, 2005), were performed at the 3 MV Tandetron accelerator of the LABEC laboratory of INFN in Florence. The data were used to identify and characterize the main PM10 sources along the ship route, with a focus on ship emissions, through apportionment Positive Matrix Factorization receptor modelling, PMF (Paatero et al, 1994). Particular attention was given to the evidence of emissions from heavy fuel oil combustion by ships, known to be an important source of secondary sulphate aerosol. Five sources of aerosol were resolved by the PMF analysis with a new database. The analysis allows distinguishing between secondary and primary particle mass resulting from ship emissions: V and Ni were found to be suitable tracers of heavy fuel oil combustion source during the campaign. The source having the largest impact on PM10 was identified as Sulphate source by PMF. The correlations between Sulphate and V and Ni showed the influence of ship emissions on sulphate in marine air masses

Bremsstrahlung Suppression due to the LPM and Dielectric Effects in a Variety of Materials

The cross section for bremsstrahlung from highly relativistic particles is suppressed due to interference caused by multiple scattering in dense media, and due to photon interactions with the electrons in all materials. We present here a detailed study of bremsstrahlung production of 200 keV to 500 MeV photons from 8 and 25 GeV electrons traversing a variety of target materials. For most targets, we observe the expected suppressions to a good accuracy. We observe that finite thickness effects are important for thin targets.Comment: 52 pages, 13 figures (incorporated in the revtex LaTeX file