Use of the PARO robot as a social mediator in a sample of children with neurodevelopmental disorders and typical development.

Background: Social robotics is a research field aimed at providing robots with skills related to social behavior and natural human interaction. Many studies have demonstrated the efficacy of these robots as socio-communicative mediators. Others have used them to create a new communication channel and promote social interaction in chil-dren with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

[An esophagoaortic fistula due to a foreign body].

Starting from a case of aortoesophageal fistula caused by a foreign body, some aspects of the treatment of upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage of uncertain etiology are discussed. The time between bleeding and perforation often notes it possible to perform resolutive diagnostic tests (aortography, esophagoscopy, CT).

Lactitol in treatment of chronic hepatic encephalopathy. A meta-analysis.

The efficacy and side effects of lactitol in the treatment of chronic hepatic encephalopathy was compared to that of other disaccharides in a meta-analysis of published randomized clinical trials (RCTs). The outcomes assessed were: (1) the rate of patients free from episodes of clinically detectable encephalopathy, and (2) the rate of patients free from one or more side effects in the different treatment groups. Four RCTs were eligible for analysis; in three lactitol was compared to lactulose, in one the alternative treatment was lactose in lactase-deficient patients.

Hepatitis C virus infection as a risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with cirrhosis. A case-control study.

Objective: To determine whether chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is an independent risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma and whether it increases the cirrhosis-related risk for hepatocellular carcinoma.

Design: Two pair-matched case-control studies.

Setting: A referral-based hospital.

A performance evaluation of the expert system 'Jaundice' in comparison with that of three hepatologists.

The diagnostic performance of an Expert System (Jaundice) designed to discriminate between different causes of jaundice was evaluated in a test sample of 200 consecutive in-patients with serum bilirubin greater than or equal to 51 mumol/l. The average probability assigned to true diagnosis, the non-error rate and the overall accuracy were, respectively, 55%, 77% and 70%. The Expert System's discriminatory ability in probabilistic prediction, assessed by a method based on continuous functions of the diagnostic probabilities (Brier score) was good.