25 research outputs found
Corrigendum
No full textPutignano S, Gareri P, Castagna A, Cerqua G, Cervera P, Cotroneo AM, Fiorillo F, Grella R, Lacava R, Maddonni A, Marino S, Pluderi A, Putignano D, Rocca F. Retrospective and observational study to assess the efficacy of citicoline in elderly patients suffering from stupor related to complex geriatric syndrome. Clin Interv Aging. 2012;7:113–118.One of the author’s names was listed incorrectly as Roberto Grella, it should have been Rodolfo Grella.Read the original articl
Breastfeeding promotion and support: a quality improvement study
No full textBackground. Breastfeeding success is determined by early skin to skin contact, early
initiation of breastfeeding, rooming-in, baby-led breastfeeding, creation of a favorable
environment, specific training of health professionals, and continuity of care.
Objective. To investigate the women’s satisfaction regarding the care and support re-
ceived in the first days after childbirth.
Material and Methods. A questionnaire of 24 items was administered to mothers be-
fore discharge, from May to September 2019 at the University Hospital of Modena.
Results. The predictive variables of exclusive breastfeeding were the delivery mode, age
at birth and parity. The multivariate analysis showed that a high satisfaction score was
associated with vaginal birth (OR=2.63, p=0.005), rooming-in during the hospitalization
(OR=8.64, p<0.001), the skin to skin contact (OR=6.61, p=0.001) and the first latch-on
within 1 hour after birth (OR=3.00, p=0.02).
Conclusions. Mothers’ satisfaction is one of the important factors of positive experience
during hospital stay and of better health outcomes
Perinatal outcome and healthcare resource utilization in the first year of life after antiepileptic exposure during pregnancy
No full textHealthcare administrative databases of Italy's Lombardy Region were analyzed with the aim to assess perinatal outcomes and healthcare resource utilization during the first year of life in infants exposed to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) during pregnancy. Drug prescriptions dispensed in the 12 months before delivery to women, who delivered between 2005 and 2011, were analyzed. Neonates were classified as cases if exposed to AEDs, and each case was randomly matched to seven controls. No significant differences were observed in the risk of congenital malformations between 526 cases and 3682 controls except for valproic acid (odds ratio (OR): 2.29; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.24–4.22) where cases were more likely to be small for gestational age (χ2 = 7.66; p = 0.006). Cases also had a higher probability than controls of needing at least one specialist visit in a child neuropsychiatry outpatient service (OR: 1.74; 95% CI: 1.22–2.49)
Advances in Craniofacial and Dental Materials Through Nanotechnology and Tissue Engineering
No full textThis eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contac
Advances in Craniofacial and Dental Materials Through Nanotechnology and Tissue Engineering
No full textThis eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contac
Employment and Social Security/Insurance among patients affected by mental disorders in Italy: A descriptive multi-center study
No full textIntroduction: Many mental disorders especially chronic serious ones such as schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, are disabling syndromes and impact on patients' social and cognitive functioning, including work activity. Thus, affected patients may show a particular socio-economic vulnerability and need specific social security as well as rehabilitation interventions, including pensions or job-placements. In Italy, the Working Group named 'Employment and Social Security/Insurance in Mental Health (ESSIMH)' was founded in 2020 in order to collect research evidence on mental illness, employment, social security, and rehabilitation. Methods: A descriptive, observational and multi-center study has been conducted in eleven Departments of Mental Health in Italy (Foggia, Brindisi, Putignano, Rome, Bologna, Siena, Pavia, Mantova, Genova, Brescia, and Torino) and involved 737 patients affected by major mental illness and classified in five diagnostic categories: psychoses, mood disorders, personality disorders, anxiety disorders, and others. The data collection was performed in 2020 among patients aged 18 to 70 years old. Results: The rate of employment in our sample was 35.8% (n = 264). Occupational disability in our sample was recognized in 58.0% of patients with a mean percentage of severity 51.7 ± 43.1; patients with psychoses (73%) reported higher disability followed by personality (60%) and mood disorders (47.3%) ones. In a logistic multivariate modeling, factors significantly associated with diagnosis were (a) higher level of occupational disability in psychoses; (b) higher number of job- placement programs among psychoses patients; (c) lower level of employment in psychoses; (d) more psychotherapy in personality disorder patients; and (e) more years of MHC program in psychoses patients; factors associated with sex were: (a) higher number of drive licenses among males; (b) more physical activity among males; and (c) higher number of job-placement programs among males. Conclusion: patients affected by psychoses were more likely to be unemployed, reported higher occupational disability as well as received more incentives and rehabilitation interventions. These findings confirmed that schizophrenia-spectrum disorders are disabling and patients need psychosocial support and interventions in the framework of a recovery-oriented treatment
An Indeterminate for Malignancy FNA Report Does Not Increase the Surgical Risk of Incidental Thyroid Carcinoma
No full textIncidental thyroid carcinomas (ITCs) are a fairly frequent finding in daily routine practice, with papillary thyroid microcarcinoma being the most frequent entity. In our work, we isolated incidental cases arising in thyroids removed for other cytologically indeterminate and histologically benign nodules. We retrospectively retrieved cases with available thyroid Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA, 3270 cases), selecting those with an indeterminate cytological diagnosis (Bethesda classes III–IV, 652 cases). Subsequently, we restricted the analysis to surgically treated patients (163 cases) finding an incidental thyroid carcinoma in 22 of them. We found a 13.5% ITC rate, with ITCs representing 46.8% of all cancer histologically diagnosed in this indeterminate setting. Patients received a cytological diagnosis of Bethesda class III and IV in 41% and 59% of cases, respectively. All ITC cases turned out to be papillary thyroid microcarcinomas; 36% of cases were multifocal, with foci bilaterally detected in 50% of cases. We found an overall ITC rate concordant with the literature and with our previous findings. The assignment of an indeterminate category to FNA did not increase the risk of ITCs in our cohort. Rather, a strong statistical significance (p < 0.01) was found comparing the larger size of nodules that underwent FNA and the smaller size of their corresponding ITC nodule
Classification of metal site coordination number and geometry through artificial neural networks
No full textCoordination number and geometry are critical factors affecting the chemical properties of metal complexes, both abiogenic and biological. Automated determination of these features from atom coordinates is desirable for applications such as structure quality control, data-mining and machine learning, however classical approaches to this task tend to be computationally intensive. Here, we introduce a deep learning-based approach to perform simultaneous classification of coordination number and geometry through artificial neural networks (ANNs) [1].
Crystal structures of metal complexes with coordination number between 2 and 6 across seven of the most common coordination geometries were retrieved from the CSD and MetalPDB databases [2,3]. Geometric features including distances and angles formed by the 6 heteroatoms closest to the metal are then computed from crystallographic coordinates and used as input data in order to train separate models designed to perform classification on abiogenic and biomolecular sites (Figure 1).
The balanced accuracy of 5-fold cross-validated models is above 98% for the CSD-trained model and above 90% for the MetalPDB-trained model, while the time required for classification once the input features have been generated is less than a millisecond per metal site. Overall, these results demonstrate the validity of this approach for automated metal site classification, in particular for high- throughput applications which require the extraction of molecular properties from a large number of structures.
[1] A. Krogh, Nat. Biotechnol 26 (2008) 195–197
[2] C. R. Groom, I. J. Bruno, M. P. Lightfoot and S. C. Ward, Acta Cryst. B72 (2016) 171-179
[3] V. Putignano, A. Rosato, L. Banci and C. Andreini, Nucleic Acids Res. 46D1 (2018) D459-D46
Ras-guanine nucleotide-releasing factor 1 (Ras-GRF1) controls activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling in the striatum and long-term behavioral responses to cocaine
No full textBackground: Ras-extracellular signal-regulated kinase (Ras-ERK) signaling is central to the molecular machinery underlying cognitive functions. In the striatum, ERK1/2 kinases are co-activated by glutamate and dopamine D1/5 receptors, but the mechanisms providing such signaling integration are still unknown. The Ras-guanine nucleotide-releasing factor 1 (Ras-GRF1), a neuronal specific activator of Ras-ERK signaling, is a likely candidate for coupling these neurotransmitter signals to ERK kinases in the striatonigral medium spiny neurons (MSN) and for modulating behavioral responses to drug abuse such as cocaine. Methods: We used genetically modified mouse mutants for Ras-GRF1 as a source of primary MSN cultures and organotypic slices, to perform both immunoblot and immunofluorescence studies in response to glutamate and dopamine receptor agonists. Mice were also subjected to behavioral and immunohistochemical investigations upon treatment with cocaine. Results: Phosphorylation of ERK1/2 in response to glutamate, dopamine D1 agonist, or both stimuli simultaneously is impaired in Ras-GRF1–deficient striatal cells and organotypic slices of the striatonigral MSN compartment. Consistently, behavioral responses to cocaine are also affected in mice deficient for Ras-GRF1 or overexpressing it. Both locomotor sensitization and conditioned place preference are significantly attenuated in Ras-GRF1–deficient mice, whereas a robust facilitation is observed in overexpressing transgenic animals. Finally, we found corresponding changes in ERK1/2 activation and in accumulation of FosB/ΔFosB, a well-characterized marker for long-term responses to cocaine, in MSN from these animals. Conclusions: These results strongly implicate Ras-GRF1 in the integration of the two main neurotransmitter inputs to the striatum and in the maladaptive modulation of striatal networks in response to cocaine
Cirrhosis is associated with lower serological responses to COVID-19 vaccines in patients with chronic liver disease
No full textBackground & Aims: The response of patients with chronic liver disease (CLD) to COVID-19 vaccines remains unclear. Our aim was to assess the humoral immune response and efficacy of two-dose COVID-19 vaccines among patients with CLD of different aetiologies and disease stages. Methods: A total of 357 patients were recruited in clinical centres from six European countries, and 132 healthy volunteers served as controls. Serum IgG (nM), IgM (nM), and neutralising antibodies (%) against the Wuhan-Hu-1, B.1.617, and B.1.1.529 SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins were determined before vaccination (T0) and 14 days (T2) and 6 months (T3) after the second-dose vaccination. Patients fulfilling inclusion criteria at T2 (n = 212) were stratified into ‘low’ or ‘high’ responders according to IgG levels. Infection rates and severity were collected throughout the study. Results: Wuhan-Hu-1 IgG, IgM, and neutralisation levels significantly increased from T0 to T2 in patients vaccinated with BNT162b2 (70.3%), mRNA-1273 (18.9%), or ChAdOx1 (10.8%). In multivariate analysis, age, cirrhosis, and type of vaccine (ChAdOx1 > BNT162b2 > mRNA-1273) predicted ‘low’ humoral response, whereas viral hepatitis and antiviral therapy predicted ‘high’ humoral response. Compared with Wuhan-Hu-1, B.1.617 and, further, B.1.1.529 IgG levels were significantly lower at both T2 and T3. Compared with healthy individuals, patients with CLD presented with lower B.1.1.529 IgGs at T2 with no additional key differences. No major clinical or immune IgG parameters associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection rates or vaccine efficacy. Conclusions: Patients with CLD and cirrhosis exhibit lower immune responses to COVID-19 vaccination, irrespective of disease aetiology. The type of vaccine leads to different antibody responses that appear not to associate with distinct efficacy, although this needs validation in larger cohorts with a more balanced representation of all vaccines. Impact and Implications: In patients with CLD vaccinated with two-dose vaccines, age, cirrhosis, and type of vaccine (Vaxzevria > Pfizer BioNTech > Moderna) predict a ‘lower’ humoral response, whereas viral hepatitis aetiology and prior antiviral therapy predict a ‘higher’ humoral response. This differential response appears not to associate with SARS-CoV-2 infection incidence or vaccine efficacy. However, compared with Wuhan-Hu-1, humoral immunity was lower for the Delta and Omicron variants, and all decreased after 6 months. As such, patients with CLD, particularly those older and with cirrhosis, should be prioritised for receiving booster doses and/or recently approved adapted vaccines
