43 research outputs found
The psychometric and psychosocial dimension of Albanian immigration: data from a preliminary study
No full textThe present study is part of a wider ministerial project aimed at analysing--both the healthcare and psychological aspects--the phenomenon of illegal immigration, in particular Albanian immigration in Apulia. The CBA 2.0 Primary Scale was duly translated, in accordance with the guidelines set out in literature, to allow for identification and future use of psychological tools in Albanian and therefore assess the psychological dimension of a sample group of adult Albanians. Moreover, the eventual presence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in subjects who arrived in Italy after a traumatic journey was studied. 82 Albanians were chosen (47 male and 35 female) having lived in Italy for over a year. All subjects were given the Albanian version of CBA 2.0 Primary Scale; subjects who had entered Italy illegally were asked to answer the DSM-IV questionnaire to assess PTSD and MDD and a semi-structured questionnaire made up to evaluate their experiences, before, during and after the trauma of their journey. CBA 2.0 translated into Albanian does not reveal psychological disturbances of clinical significance but did reveal values of hardship significantly lower than the normal Italian standards. Only 3 cases of PTSD and 6 of MDD arose from the questionnaire regarding the assessment of PTSD and MMD
Failure of Further Validation for Survival Nomograms in Oropharyngeal Cancer: Issues and Challenges
No full textPurpose: To retrospectively test 2 nomograms recently validated as prognostic tools for patients with oropharyngeal cancer treated with curative radiation-based therapy, in 184 consecutive subjects treated from April 2004 to January 2016. Patient and Methods: Complete information regarding disease, survival status, and nomogram covariates was retrieved for 174 patients, with a median follow-up of 51 months. Calibration of the nomograms was obtained by evaluating the ability to accurately predict the absolute risk level; discriminative ability estimated by the Harrell C statistic was tested by assessing the ability of the nomograms to rank the patients from low risk to high risk. Results: The outcome predicted by the nomograms was worse than observed, especially for progression-free survival. This may be due to several factors: geographic and genetic background, smoking, alcohol use, the different national health system organization, which provides universal and free-of-charge coverage to all individuals, and the setting of treatment in clinical practice, outside of clinical trials. Conclusions: Our results show that the usefulness of nomograms to predict outcome of oropharyngeal cancer may not be generalizable to patients of different countries. Further studies are needed to clarify whether sociodemographic, epidemiologic, and cultural scenarios may seriously affect the prognostic ability of newly developed predictive tools
Preemptive treatment with Xonrid®, a medical device to reduce radiation induced dermatitis in head and neck cancer patients receiving curative treatment: a pilot study
No full textPurpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate efficacy, safety and tolerability of Xonrid®, a new medical device, in preventing radiation dermatitis associated with head and neck cancer (HNC) radiotherapy (RT). Methods: In this monocentric, prospective pilot study, adult consecutive HNC patients who were planned to receive curative RT with or without chemotherapy were enrolled. Patients were instructed to apply Xonrid® on the irradiated area during treatment continuing until 2 weeks after the completion of RT or the development of severe skin toxicity. Toxicity was assessed using the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) version 4.0 scale. The patient reported outcome measures included the Skindex-16 questionnaire and patient satisfaction. Skin reflectance spectra were analyzed to objectively evaluate dermatitis. Results: In total, 41 subjects were enrolled (30 males, median age 60 years). No skin adverse events were recorded either in the skin area where the product was applied or in the nearby skin over the entire period of administration. At the end of RT, nine patients (22%) presented G1, 31 (76%) G2, and one patient (2%) G3 skin toxicity (after 5 weeks). Seven and 20 patients reached skin maximum toxicity at the fourth week and after the seventh week, respectively. An increasing trend of median spectrophotometry scores along with skin toxicity grades was observed. A correlation between Skindex-16 scores and skin toxicity grade during treatment was found. Conclusions: Our study results suggest that Xonrid® is well tolerated, safe, and effective in minimizing and delaying high-grade radiation dermatitis in HNC patients
The Primacy of Consciousness: A Triple Aspect Ontology
No full textConsciousness – What is it? How does it arise? These are perhaps the two most perplexing questions on the minds of researchers extending across a broad spectrum of disciplinary enquiry. Consider the interested disciplines of cognitive science notably psychology, philosophy, linguistics, quantum mechanics, artificial intelligence and the neurosciences. Cognitive science is the study of intelligence and intelligent systems. Cognitive science attempts to organize and unify views of thought as developed within these distinct disciplines (Sheedy & Chapman, 1995:ix). The concept of consciousness is in one sense readily recognized, putatively held to be that which makes humans different from the rest of the animal kingdom. Consciousness is thought to be what makes us what we are, that enables us to feel and sense things - those attributes of phenomenal experience collectively termed qualia. The concept of qualia derive their meaning from the sensory qualities representative of human phenomenal experience at least on the one hand from non-materialist perspectives, due to this thing called consciousness. The sense of pain, for instance, is a quale thought to be a property of consciousness. Although, on the other hand from a purely reductive materialist perspective, in what sense can the neurochemical activity equally be responsible for producing pain in the body? In other words, how does consciousness arise from a network of interconnected neurons and glial cells of the brain? This sort of question leads one to wonder whether every individual neuron is conscious. If not, what then, is the critical threshold of neurochemical activity for consciousness to arise? No one has a definitive answer or one even close enough to make sense out of the question. (From Author\u27s Introduction)
ISBN: 978-383832237
Nanoimprinted semiconducting polymer films with 50 nm features and their application to organic heterojunction solar cells
No full textNanoimprint lithography is used to directly pattern the conjugated polymer semiconductor poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT). We obtain trenches with aspect ratios up to 2 and feature sizes as small as 50 nm in this polymer. The application to organic solar cells is shown by creating an interpenetrated donor-acceptor interface, based on P3HT and N,N'-ditridecyl-3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic diimide (PTCDI-C-13), deposited from the vapor phase to reduce shadow effects. A planarizing layer of spin-coated zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles is used to reduce the roughness of the layer stack. The response of the photovoltaic devices follows the increased interface area, up to a 2.5-fold enhancement.sponsorship: This work was supported by the EU Integrated Project NAIMO (no. NMP4-CT-2004-500355). We thank J Gilot for providing the ZnO ink and J Moonens for fabrication of the nanoimprint molds. Furthermore, we thank M Seo for help with SEM/FIB and D Winant for the DSC measurements. (EU Integrated Project NAIMO|NMP4-CT-2004-500355)status: Publishe
Charge Injection across Self-Assembly Monolayers in Organic Field Effect Transistors: Odd-Even Effects
No full textAlkanethiol monolayers self-assembled on the Au source and drain electrodes have been used to improve the response of organic field effect transistors by different groups in the past. Here, we investigate the role of self-assembly monolayers of chain length n, where n ranges between 3 and 18, in modulating the charge injection in pentacene field effect transistors. The charge carrier mobility μ exhibits large fluctuations correlated with odd-even n. For n 8, μ decays exponentially with an inverse decay length β=0.6 Å-1. As the morphology in the channel is invariant, we account for both the electron structure and the molecular disorder at the interface by introducing a length scale of injection as a function of the chain length. Charge injection across the interface occurs by through-bond tunneling of holes mediated by the alkanethiol layer. At short chain length, decrease of both interfacial morphological disorder and pentacene-surface interactions dominates over the increasing thickness of the alkanethiol monolayer. At long chain length, the charge injection across the alkanethiol monolayer completely governs the transistor response. The odd-even effect is ascribed to the anisotropic coupling between the alkanethiol terminal sigma bond and the HOMO level of ordered pentacene molecules. Our results show that the pentacene transistor is a sensitive gauge for probing charge transport across single monolayers, and that its response is sensitive to sub-molecular details of the interface. This work was supported by the EU-Integrated Project NAIMO (No NMP4-CT-2004-500355)
Sorafenib in patients with Child-Pugh class A and B advanced hepatocellular carcinoma: a prospective feasibility analysis.
No full textBackground: Sorafenib has shown survival benefits in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and Child-Pugh (CP) class A liver function. There are few prospective data on sorafenib in patients with HCC and CP class B. Patients and methods: A consecutive prospective series of 300 patients with CP class A or B HCC were enrolled in a dual-phase trial to determine survival and safety data according to liver function (class A or B) in patients receiving oral sorafenib 800 mg daily. [Results of this study were presented in part at the ASCO 2012 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, 19-21 January 2012. J Clin Oncol 2012; 30 (Suppl 4): abstract 306.]. Results: Overall progression-free survival (PFS), time to progression (TTP) and overall survival (OS) were 3.9, 4.1 and 9.1 months, respectively. For patients with CP class A versus B status, PFS was 4.3 versus 2.1 months, TTP was 4.2 versus 3.8 months and OS was 10.0 versus 3. 8 months. Extrahepatic spread was associated with worse outcomes but taken together with CP class, liver function played a greater role in reducing survival. Adverse events for the two CP groups were similar. Conclusion: Although patients with HCC and CP class B liver function have poorer outcomes than those with CP class A function, data suggest that patients with CP class B liver function can tolerate treatment and may still benefit from sorafenib. © The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society for Medical Oncology. All rights reserved
