Archivio Istituzionale della Ricerca - Università degli Studi di Pavia
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COVID-19 Vaccine Perception in Liver Transplant Recipients: Patient-Reported Outcomes and Real-Life Experience from the Bergamo Center
No full textBackground: Bergamo was the most severely affected Italian province at the onset of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. The liver transplant (LT) patient population should be among the more sensitized to the concept of health prevention. Long-term data on both perception and outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in LT recipients since the COVID-19 vaccine became available in Italy are still lacking. Methods: From May to October 2023, a survey on actively followed LT recipients at our institution was carried on by the local patient’ advocacy (Associazione Amici del Trapianto di Fegato) to define the rate of vaccinated subjects, SARS-CoV-2 infections and self-reported COVID-19-related outcomes. Results: Out of the consecutive 753 adult LT recipients invited to the survey, 356 responded (47.3%) [71% male, 63 years old (20–85), LT performed a mean of 9 years (1–26) before vaccination] and were included in the analysis. All patients received the first vaccine dose between December 2020 and January 2022 (81.7% Cominarty®, 17.7% Spikevax®, 0.3% Vaxzevria® and 0.3% Jcovden®). In the following years, adherence to the vaccination policy decreased progressively over time: the second, third, fourth, and fifth vaccine doses were administered to 99%, 94%, 72%, and 22% of the LT population by October, 2023. In total, 43 (12%) and 93 (26%) patients reported a COVID-19 episode before and after [13 (7–21) months] the first vaccination, respectively; none of the LT recipients reported a second COVID-19 infection after the following vaccination cycles. Forty-six (13%) reported short-term post-vaccination mild adverse events but none developed either acute or chronic rejection episodes or hospitalization for COVID-19-related symptoms. A total of 64% of LT recipients resulted positive for anti-nucleocapsid serological test in 2023. Conclusions: COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective in LT recipients, underlining once again the importance of vaccination in this special population at higher risk of complications from communicable infectious diseases
Figural Readings of Jewish and Muslim Rites: a Christian Device from the 12th to 14th Centuries
No full textRedefining Thyroid Nodule Evaluation: Demographics, Misleading Symptoms, and Diagnostic Challenges. Insights From a Multicenter Study
No full textObjective: Thyroid ultrasound (US) is the cornerstone for diagnosing nodular thyroid disease, yet many US examinations are prompted by nonspecific local symptoms (LS) like dysphagia or a palpable neck mass (NM). The clinical utility of such referrals remains debated. Methods: This multicenter retrospective study analyzed 614 patients diagnosed with thyroid nodules (TNs) via US from 2 endocrinology centers in Italy between December 2021 and October 2022. Patients were grouped based on referral reason: symptomatic TNs, further subdivided into NM and LS, versus nonsymptomatic TNs. Clinical, ultrasonographic, and management data were compared. Results: Symptomatic TNs accounted for 28.7% of cases (19.2% NM, 9.5% LS). NM patients were younger, more often female, and had larger, often cystic or isthmic-located nodules than nonsymptomatic TN patients. Conversely, LS patients had no significant differences in thyroid volume or nodule size but showed a higher prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux disease. Fine-needle aspiration was more common in the NM group because of larger nodules, but malignancy rates did not differ across groups. Surgical rates were similar, whereas thermal ablation was more frequent in the NM group. Conclusions: A third of TNs are diagnosed during US prompted by LS, yet only NMs are associated with distinct nodule characteristics. Dysphagia and dysphonia were nonspecific and more related to gastroesophageal reflux disease than TNs. These findings support caution against overuse of US. Demographics, nodule features, and location should guide clinical suspicion and imaging decisions to avoid unnecessary imaging and interventions
Donne e sigilli a Emar. Rappresentazione e pratiche sigillari nel contesto siro-ittita
No full textThis paper examines the ownership and use of seals by women at Late Bronze Age Emar, with particular attention to Syro-Hittite glyptic traditions. Through selected case studies, it explores how seal inscriptions, iconography, and sealing practices reflect social roles, gender identity, and cultural interaction within the Hittite provincial context
COMPUTATIONAL MODELING AND SIMULATION OF THE CEREBELLAR CIRCUITS INVOLVED IN EMOTIONAL CONTROL
No full textUnderstanding the neural basis of emotional processing has become a central theme in contemporary neuroscience. Fear conditioning, an evolutionarily conserved form of associative learning, is a widely used paradigm for investigating the neural basis of emotion. Its usefulness stems from its clear behavioral outputs, well-established experimental structure, and the cross-species conservation of key underlying neural mechanisms. This makes it a highly translational model for investigating how the brain detects, processes, and learns from emotionally salient or threatening stimuli, ultimately contributing to adaptive behavioral responses. While historically overlooked in emotion research, the cerebellum—and specifically lobule VI—has recently gained attention for its potential integrative role in both motor and affective processes.
In this thesis, we investigate the cerebellum’s contribution to emotional learning by combining computational modeling and experimental datasets. We developed a detailed, data-driven reconstruction of the mouse cerebellar lobule VI (Declive) using the Blue Brain Cell Atlas, the Brain Scaffold Builder framework, and we simulated its dynamics as single-point neural networks by using NEST. This Declive-specific model was compared against a canonical cerebellar microcircuit to identify structural and functional region-specificities.
Building upon this, we challenged the model to explore Pavlovian conditioning in rodents, simulating neural responses to conditioned and unconditioned stimulation patterns. We therefore defined hypotheses for plasticity mechanisms and interactions between the olivocerebellar circuit and the periaqueductal gray region, involved in fear conditioning.
Moreover, at a large scale, we identified the human fear network within the Virtual Brain framework by tuning the whole-brain system parameters on subject-specific neuroimaging datasets. The focus was on the cerebellar nodes involved in the brain network. We then correlated the parameter sets with fear-related response outcomes.
Although these models operate at different scales and in different species, together they serve as complementary pioneer work aimed at investigating emotional processes and cerebellar involvement. This modeling strategy illustrates the potential of biologically grounded computational neuroscience to explore brain–behavior relationships across levels of organization
Transformative entrepreneurship: The role of female entrepreneurs in driving sustainability in small enterprises
No full textTransformative entrepreneurship represents a significant revolution leading to new ways of conceiving sustainability through sustainable business models. Women who own enterprises have enormous potential for innovation and mitigating the effects of environmental degradation and climate change. However, there is little literature on the role of Female sustainable entrepreneurs (FSEs) in implementing sustainable behavior (SB) in their firms. This paper uses an exploratory and grounded research methodology based on four case studies of FSEs. The results illustrate that FSEs relied on their personal characteristics and motivations and leveraged contextual features as external enablers to adopt sustainability into their firms. This chapter contributes to studies on female entrepreneurship literature and sheds light on a less explored case of the individual factors of the FSEs that affect the firm's sustainability. The chapter also contributes to transformative entrepreneurship literature by addressing how sustainable transformation influences the entrepreneurial process from a gender perspective
