Traditional home-made dry sausages produced in Sardinia: a study of the microflora

Despite the extent of pig farming and a thousand-year-old tradition of pork processing in Sardinia, in depth studies had never highlighted the quality and tradition of the island’s cured meat products The aim of this work is to carry out an investigation on the microflora of home-made dry sausages produced in Sardinia to valorise the product and to constitute a collection of strain isolated from this traditional product Five batches of sausages were produced according to traditional methods without the use of starter cultures by five different artisanal producers located in different areas of Sardinia. The evolution of different microbial group and physic-chemical (aw and pH) parameters throughout ripening were investigated. 250 isolates from MRS and 217 from MSA were characterised at species and strain level by molecular methods. The results pointed out that the product object of this study is a typical Mediterranean type of dry, naturally-fermented sausage, characterised by low acidification rates and high final pH. The bacterial microflora was mainly represented by LAB and CNC that reached high counts from the 7th day of ripening. The main species isolated were Lb. sakei, Lb. curvatus and S. xylosus. A high biodiversity at strain level was found within species

L'esperienza dei caregiver primari che assistono a domicilio le persone affette dalla Malattia di Alzheimer

RIASSUNTO Nel presente studio si vuole indagare quale sia l'esperienza dei caregiver (uomini e donne) primari delle persone affette da Malattia di Alzheimer in ambito domiciliare. Obiettivo dello studio è di discutere su come i caregivers vivano la loro esperienza di fornitori di assistenza in modo da poter mettere in atto programmi che possano contribuire al miglioramento dell'esperienza assistenziale e personale. Per lo studio è stato utilizzato un metodo qualitativo e il campione è stato definito in base alla saturazione dei dati. Le interviste, effettuate presso un Centro Diurno, sono state registrate, trascritte verbatim ed analizzate in modo rigoroso per estrapolare i temi fondamentali dell'esperienza. Dall'analisi delle stesse sono stati estratti i concetti costitutivi (codici sostanziali) e sono stati raggruppati in categorie simili con l'estrapolazione di sei temi fondamentali. I nostri risultati sono in accordo con la letteratura ove esiste un generale consenso relativo alle problematiche riguardanti l'esperienza di caregiving. Alla luce dei risultati si pongono le basi per strutturare un modello riferito al Nursing che necessiterí  di ulteriore analisi e futura validazione. Parole chiave: caregiver, infermieristica, ricerca qualitativa, sindrome di AlzheimerAbstractThe aim of this study is to investigate the experience of primary caregivers (men and women) of Alzheimer Disease dementia, in order to tailor program and project to avoid care giving burden. A qualitative phenomenological method was used and the sample was defined by data saturation. Interviews were carried out and recorded in a day care Centre, transcribed verbatim. The analysis was conducted coding common themes and phrases. Six main themes emerged. Our results are similar to those existing in literature, showing care givers as individual in great danger physically and mentally. In the light of the study it is possible to tailor a nursing model in order to improve quality of life and decrease the burden of caregivers, this model should be implemented and analyzed.Keyword: Caregiver, burden, qualitative research, Alzheimer Diseas

A Survey on the characteristics of sausage made from Sicilian and Sardinian native pigs

Four different mixtures were prepared using meat from native pigs. Mixtures 1 and 2 were made in Sardinia using meat from pigs of Sarda breed, mixtures 3 and 4 in Sicily, using meat from the Nera Siciliana breed. The manufacturing were different not only for the typology of the meat but also for the meat cuts used and the ingredients. Batches 1 and 3 were made in non conditioned natural environments, while batches 2 and 4 in conditioned environments. Chemical-physical and microbiological analyses were carried out on the fresh mixture, after 7 days of ripening (end of drying in conditioned environment and at the end of seasoning (28 days). The thermoigrometric environmental parameters and the variation in the weight of the production were measured during ripening. Regarding the Lactic Acid Bacteria and the Micrococcaceae, microorganisms of normal maturation, a rapid development, except for batch 1, was observed for all batches at 7 days of ripening. In batches 2 and 4 an increase of Enterobacteriaceae in the drying phase and a their decrease in the seasoning phase were noticed. In batch 3 their inactivation resulted slow. Such occurrences were probably due to the hygienic conditions and non inhibiting technological parameters. The initial humidity was less than 60% with the exception of batch 3; the quantity of NaCl ranged between 2 and 2.8%. The amount of fat varied between 14 and 24% at the beginning of the ripening, then reached values ranging between of 20 and 38% at the end of the seasoning phase. All the batches showed a decrease of aw included between 0.97 (mixture) and 0.87 (final product); the highest value of aw recorded in test 1 was attributable to the lower T recorded both during the drying and seasoning phase. The pH reached the lowest values at the end of the 7 days and then increased, with the exception of batch 3, which decreased during the whole seasoning phase

D2.1 Evaluation Criteria and Methods

The main purposes of the current deliverable D2.1 is to provide the foundations of an Evaluation Framework that can be applied to compare Open Web Data applications and rank them according to their achievements. D2.1 contains the information gained from Task 2.1 - Evaluation criteria and method review and Task 2.2 - Validation of the evaluation criteria and methods of WP2 (DoW. p. 8). According to those tasks, we conducted an expert survey with the Group Concept Mapping method to identify relevant indicators and criteria for the Evaluation Framework. In a second step, we conducted a focused literature review to extend the outcomes of the expert survey with latest indicators reported in the literature. We finally, present the initial concept of the Evaluation Framework and its criteria and indicators. This deliverable provides the theoretical foundations for the Evaluation Framework that is further developed into a scoring sheet for the judges of LinkedUp challenge in deliverable D2.2.1. The Evaluation Framework will be further developed and amended according to the experiences collected in the three LinkedUp data competitions during the LinkedUp challeng

Supervised team management, with or without structured psychotherapy, in heavy users of a mental health service with borderline personality disorder: a two-year follow-up preliminary randomized study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Individuals affected by severe Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) are often heavy users of Mental Health Services (MHS). Short-term treatments currently used in BPD therapy are useful to target disruptive behaviors but they are less effective in reducing heavy MHS use. Therefore, alternative short-term treatments, less complex than long-term psychodynamic psychotherapies but specifically oriented to BPD core problems, need to be developed to reduce MHS overuse. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of adding Sequential Brief Adlerian Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (SB-APP) to Supervised Team Management (STM) in BPD treatment compared to STM alone in a naturalistic group of heavy MHS users with BPD. Effectiveness was evaluated 6 times along a two-year follow-up.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Thirty-five outpatients who met inclusion criteria were randomly assigned to two treatment groups (STM = 17; SB-APP = 18) and then compared. Clinical Global Impression (CGI) and CGI-modified (CGI-M) for BPD, Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI), and Symptom Checklist-90 Revised (SCL-90-R) were administered at T1, T3, T6, T12, T18 and T24. At T12 the Working Alliance Inventory-Short Form (WAI-S) was also completed. At the one-year follow-up, SB-APP group did not receive any additional individual psychological support. MHS team was specifically trained in BPD treatment and had regular supervisions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>All patients improved on CGI, GAF, and STAXI scores after 6 and 12 months, independently of treatment received. SB-APP group showed better outcome on impulsivity, suicide attempts, chronic feelings of emptiness, and disturbed relationships. We found a good stabilization at the one year follow-up, even after the interruption of brief psychotherapy in the SB-APP group.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Although STM for BPD applied to heavy MHS users was effective in reducing symptoms and improving their global functioning, adding a time-limited and focused psychotherapy was found to achieve a better outcome. In particular, focusing treatment on patients' personality with a specific psychotherapeutic approach (i.e. SB-APP) seemed to be more effective than STM alone.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov: <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT1356069">NCT1356069</a></p

Pathways to eating disorder care: a European multicenter study

Background: The aim of this study was to assess barriers and facilitators in the pathways toward specialist care for eating disorders (EDs). Methods: Eleven ED services located in seven European countries recruited patients with an ED. Clinicians administered an adapted version of the World Health Organization "Encounter Form," a standardized tool to assess the pathways to care. The unadjusted overall time needed to access the ED unit was described using the Kaplan-Meier curve. Results: Four-hundred-nine patients were recruited. The median time between the onset of the current ED episode and the access to a specialized ED care was 2 years. Most of the participants did not directly access the specialist ED unit: primary "points of access" to care were mental health professionals and general practitioners. The involvement of different health professionals in the pathway, seeking help for general psychiatric symptoms, and lack of support from family members were associated with delayed access to ED units. Conclusions: Educational programs aiming to promote early diagnosis and treatment for EDs should pay particular attention to general practitioners, in addition to mental health professionals, and family members to increase awareness of these illnesses and of their treatment initiation process

An explainable model of host genetic interactions linked to COVID-19 severity

We employed a multifaceted computational strategy to identify the genetic factors contributing to increased risk of severe COVID-19 infection from a Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) dataset of a cohort of 2000 Italian patients. We coupled a stratified k-fold screening, to rank variants more associated with severity, with the training of multiple supervised classifiers, to predict severity based on screened features. Feature importance analysis from tree-based models allowed us to identify 16 variants with the highest support which, together with age and gender covariates, were found to be most predictive of COVID-19 severity. When tested on a follow-up cohort, our ensemble of models predicted severity with high accuracy (ACC = 81.88%; AUCROC = 96%; MCC = 61.55%). Our model recapitulated a vast literature of emerging molecular mechanisms and genetic factors linked to COVID-19 response and extends previous landmark Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS). It revealed a network of interplaying genetic signatures converging on established immune system and inflammatory processes linked to viral infection response. It also identified additional processes cross-talking with immune pathways, such as GPCR signaling, which might offer additional opportunities for therapeutic intervention and patient stratification. Publicly available PheWAS datasets revealed that several variants were significantly associated with phenotypic traits such as "Respiratory or thoracic disease", supporting their link with COVID-19 severity outcome.A multifaceted computational strategy identifies 16 genetic variants contributing to increased risk of severe COVID-19 infection from a Whole Exome Sequencing dataset of a cohort of Italian patients