Schizophrenia, Cancer and Obstetric Complications in an Evolutionary Perspective-An Empirically Based Hypothesis

OBJECTIVE: Patients diagnosed with schizophrenia have reduced fecundity and premature mortality (both accidental and violent) with no obvious compensatory advantages among kin. The prevalence of the disorder is around 0.7/1%, higher than the expected prevalence of spontaneous mutations. Genes favoring schizophrenia may have been positively selected in the environment of evolutionary adaptation. Literature on potential adaptive genes is reviewed within an evolutionary framework. METHODS: Literature search on major scientific search engine (PubMed/Medline, Ovid/PsychInfo) on papers aimed at investigating potential pathways justifying a mutation-selection balanced model. Findings are presented with a narrative touch to favor readability and understanding. RESULTS: Reduced incidence of cancer in both patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and their siblings was reported worldwide. Such findings are notable given higher cancer risk factors in schizophrenia, i.e., smoking, alcohol abuse, obesity, poor diet, and poor adherence to therapy. Some genes involved in cancer proliferation might as well confer protective advantage in immune-surveillance, inflammation, vascular proliferation or apoptosis that otherwise will adversely affect early neurodevelopment. CONCLUSION: Evidence that reduced risk of certain somatic diseases is associated with schizophrenia is quite significant to progress in the evolutionary epidemiological analysis of psychopathology

Exploring physical and psychosocial well-being and self-awareness as a new frontier in active aging

The knowledge about the effects of exercise, physical and sport activities on general well-being has been advanced thanks to pioneering studies in several medical conditions and in rehabilitation from the 1980s onwards [1]. However, a noteworthy contribution to improving standard tools hallowing to measure of how much exercise, physical and sport activities could affect the quality of life (QoL) of the elderly and adults came mainly from the studies on their effects on depression and mental health

Hand arm vibration generated by a rotary pick-up for table olives harvesting

The manual harvest of olives is one of the most expensive operations in the table olives production, but the use of the electric hand-guided machines triples the productivity.  The development of these new machines leads to changes in the harvesting methodologies and in the operator’s working behavior.  These items may also affect the hand-arm vibration (HAV) transmitted to the operators during the work.  Aim of this study is to evaluate the hand-arm vibration transmitted to the operator using an experimental electric labor saving machine with rotary combs with teeth of different dimensions covered by silicon to minimize the damage to the drupes.  Moreover, the olives removal forces have been analyzed to understand if the force necessary to detach the drupes is correlated to the vibration levels transmitted to the operator’s hand arm.  With this type of hand held olive harvester, it has been found that higher is the fruit removal force, higher are the measured vibration levels.   Keywords: HAV, portable olive shakers, rotary pick-up, table olive

La genitorialità reclusa: essere padri in carcere

Essere padri detenuti rientra nella categoria di genitorialità a rischio, in quanto la condizione di detenzione fa venire meno alcuni presupposti fondamentali dell’esercizio della funzione genitoriale. Il genitore dovrebbe riuscire trasmettere al bambino fiducia nelle sue capacità di crescita perché il bambino si nutre di questo e non di tutte le cose che gli possono essere date materialmente (Bouregba, 2004)1. Per i detenuti, la famiglia, molto spesso, costituisce la più importante fonte di speranza, benessere e legame con l’esterno (Magaletta, Herbst, 2001)2. Ma l'ingresso in carcere interrompe ed altera la natura bidirezionale e reciproca dello scambio comunicativo e interattivo genitore-figlio. Un padre detenuto non può esercitare nella contiguità fisica, spaziale e temporale il ruolo di genitore. Va inoltre considerato che stereotipi e pregiudizi possono contribuire a creare una rappresentazione culturalmente condivisa del detenuto come soggetto incapace di essere un buon genitore, e ciò potrebbe determinare, nei soggetti in questione, un vissuto di fallimento e di inadeguatezza rispetto alla percezione di sé come padre e al proprio ruolo (Cassibba, Luchinovich, Montatore, Godelli, 2008)3. Inoltre l’assenza di modelli di riferimento adeguati, le condizioni iniziali di svantaggio, la povertà degli strumenti cognitivi, comunicativi e relazionali disponibili, uniti all’esperienza di un contesto restrittivo quale il carcere, rendono difficile la costruzione e il mantenimento di un legame fra padre-figlio adeguato alle esigenze di sviluppo del minore e stabile nel tempo (Cassibba et al, op cit, 2008). Sulla base di tale impostazione teorico-concettuale, l'obiettivo del presente contributo è quello di presentare i dati preliminari di una ricerca che ha visto la collaborazione tra l'Università di Bari e di Modena e Reggio Emilia, coinvolgendo nel contempo le amministrazioni penitenziarie delle due rispettive regioni, con lo scopo di indagare l'auto-percezione del ruolo paterno in padri in stato detentivo, esplorando nel contempo la relazione tra tale forma di auto-percezione e lo stile di attaccamento dei partecipanti alla ricerca. Dal punto di vista metodologico, per la misurazione delle variabili in oggetto sono stati utilizzati l'Attachment Style Questionnaire- ASQ (Feeney, Noller e Hanrahan, 1994) e il questionario sull'Auto-percezione del Ruolo Paterno (Harter, 1982)

DNA-decorated carbon nanotube-based FETs as ultrasensitive chemical sensors: Discrimination of homologues, structural isomers, and optical isomers

We have explored the abilities of all-electronic DNA-carbon nanotube (DNA-NT) vapor sensors to discriminate very similar classes ofmolecules.We screened hundreds ofDNA-NT devices against a panel of compounds chosen because of their similarities. We demonstrated that DNA-NT vapor sensors readily discriminate between series of chemical homologues that differ by single methyl groups. DNA-NT devices also discriminate among structural isomers and optical isomers, a trait common in biological olfactory systems, but only recently demonstrated for electronic FET based chemical sensors

The factor structure of the mood disorder questionnaire in Tunisian patients

Background: The Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) is a frequently used screening tool for the early detection of Bipolar Disorder (BD), which is often unrecognized or misdiagnosed at its onset. In this study, data from Tunisia has been used to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Arabic MDQ. Methods: The sample included 151 patients with a current major depressive episode. The Arabic adapted version of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-TR was used to formulate a diagnosis, yielding 62 patients with BD and 89 with unipolar Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Principal component analysis with parallel analysis was used to establish the spontaneous distribution of the 13 core items of the MDQ. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to check the available factor models. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to assess the capacity of the MDQ to distinguish patients with BD from those with MDD. Results: Cronbach’s α in the sample was 0.80 (95%CI: 0.75 to 0.85). Ordinal α was 0.88. Parallel analysis suggested two main components, which explained 59% of variance in the data. CFA found a good fit for the existing unidimensional, the two-factor, and the three-factor models. ROC analysis showed that at a threshold of 7, the MDQ was able to distinguish patients with BD from those with MDD with extraordinary negative predictive value (0.92) and a positive diagnostic likelihood ratio of 3.8. Conclusion: The Arabic version of the MDQ showed good measurement properties in terms of reliability, factorial validity and discriminative properties

Surviving to acute myocardial infarction: The role of psychological factors and alexithymia in delayed time to searching care: A systematic review

The time from symptom onset to reperfusion is a critical determinant of myocardial salvage and clinical outcomes in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). This time period could be delayed if people do not seek help promptly and/or if the health system is not efficient in responding quickly and attending to these individuals. The aim of this study was to identify psychological factors associated with pre-hospital delay (PHD) or patients’ decisional delay (PDD) in people with an ongoing AMI. A search in PubMed/Medline from 1990 to 2021 with the keywords “pre-hospital delay” OR “prehospital delay” OR “patient delay” OR “decisional delay” OR “care seeking behavior” AND “psychological factors” OR “alexithymia” AND “myocardial infarction” was performed. Thirty-six studies were included, involving 10.389 patients. Wrong appraisal, interpretation and causal beliefs about symptoms, denial of the severity of the symptoms and high levels of alexithymia were found related to longer PHD or PDD. Alexithymia may be an overarching construct that explains the disparate findings of the studies exploring the role of psychological factors in PHD or PDD. Further studies are needed in order to analyse the role of alexithymia in patients with risk factors for AMI to prevent delay