1,721,137 research outputs found
Vincenzo Marinelli e gli artisti lucani dell'Ottocento
No full textVolume dedicato al pittore Vincenzo Marinelli e agli artisti lucani dell'Ottocento e del primo Novecento, protagonisti nelle arti figurative italiane ed europe
The impact of heroin illicit market in the framework of COVID 19 pandemic
Full text linkWe read with interest the commentary of Tittarelli et al1
on the current diffusion of higher-purity
heroin in Italy and related rise of overdose cases1
. The author discussed not only recent increasing trend
in drug purity, but also on the presence of adulterants rising drug toxicity2-11 and on the possible risk of
the presence of new psychoactive substances as even more hazardous adulterants12. In the context of this
commentary, some short remarks as to the impact of heroin illicit market in the framework of COVID 19
pandemic can be of interest. Indeed, within the extremely serious health emergency that we have been
experiencing since the beginning of 2020, the rules set by the authorities during “lock down” have led to a
significant drop in the street sale of psychotropic drugs. A scenario that opens up the hypothesis that drug
users are turning to the illicit market present in the “dark web”, to obtain classic drugs such as cocaine,
hashish or heroin. It is plausible that in a period of home confinement, habitual consumers of drugs of
abuse no longer search for psychoactive substances stimulating socialization in recreational environments
such as cocaine, amphetamines or designer drugs, but rather for compounds to be consumed in solitude
to ease confinement anxiety such as tranquilizers (e.g. benzodiazepines) or narcotics (e.g. prescription or
illicit opioids and heroin)
Post mortem determination of (β)-tryptase for the diagnosis of anaphylaxis: Looking for a reasonable cut-off
Full text linkAnaphylactic deaths represent a critical issue for forensic
pathologists and its post-mortem diagnosis requires several
steps in order to formulate a correct and reliable diagnosis,
which is not always reachable in a forensic setting. This is
the reason why, especially in deaths occurred out-of-hospital
or in an unclear accidental manner, reliable diagnostic methods to confirm or exclude anaphylaxis would be of great
value.
Mast cells are the main effectors of anaphylaxis, they are
present throughout the body, but more abundant in the skin
and around blood vessels, in the respiratory and intestinal
mucosa, and in connective tissue. The content of granules
contained into mast cells is excreted when these cells are
stimulated; one of the components stored in granules is the
neutral protease, tryptase. Tryptase exists in two isoforms,
α and β; α-tryptase is constantly secreted from mast cells
as an inactive pro-enzyme and it is used to quantify mast
cells, the other isoform, β-tryptase, is activated through two
proteolytic phases: the first phase occurs at acidic pH and
when heparin or dextran sulphate are present and it includes an autocatalytic intermolecular cleavage, generating a
monomer, significantly less active than the final tetramer.
In the second phase following the removal of the remaining
precursor dipeptide by dipeptidyl peptidase I, there will be
the formation of the active tetramer
Sindone 2000. Congresso Mondiale - Worldwide Congress (Orvieto, Agosto/August 27-28-29, 2000). Atti - Proceedings. Vol. III: Illustrazioni - Illustrations.
No full textAssisted suicide: article 17 of the Italian Code of Medical Ethics follows in the footsteps of the Italian Constitutional Court's landmark ruling
Full text linkLess than a year ago, on September 25th 2019, the Italian Constitutional Court issued a landmark decision on assistance in dying, thus setting a long-awaited standard in terms of regulating
assisted suicide1
. The ruling related to the case of Fabiano Antoniani, also known as DJ Fabo, a
man in his forties who had made a pondered, steadfast decision to receive assistance in dying at
a Swiss euthanasia clinic in 2017.
Fabiano was left blind and tetraplegic in the aftermath of a catastrophic road accident in
2014. His death has since become the subject of heated debate in a country, such as Italy, where
euthanasia, whether active (i.e., doctors actively causing the patient’s death) or passive (the
self-administration by the patient of lethal drugs to end his or her life, the way Fabiano ended
his), is adamantly opposed by the Catholic Church.
Italy’s Constitutional Court has made it clear that euthanasia should be permitted by law in
certain circumstances, including those in which a patient’s irreversible condition was “causing
physical and psychological suffering that he or she considers intolerable”.
The court’s ruling was centered around assisted dying and the “legal framework concerning
end of life [situations]”. A request had in fact been made by a Milan court to provide a clear
interpretation of the law in the trial against pro-euthanasia politician, activist and campaigner
Marco Cappato, who had actively helped Antoniani with his journey to a Swiss clinic which provides assisted suicide
Sindone 2000. Congresso Mondiale - Worldwide Congress (Orvieto, Agosto/August 27-28-29, 2000). Atti - Proceedings. Testi - Textes
No full textAssisted suicide: article 17 of the Italian Code of Medical Ethics follows in the footsteps of the Italian Constitutional Court’s landmark ruling
No full text
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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