Body-Related Visual Biasing Affects Accuracy of Reaching.

Many daily activities depend on visual inputs to improve motor accuracy and minimize errors. Reaching tasks present an ecological framework for examining these visuomotor interactions, but our comprehension of how different amounts of visual input affect motor outputs is still limited. The present study fills this gap, exploring how hand-related visual bias affects motor performance in a reaching task (to draw a line between two dots).

Biomaterials Mimicking Mechanobiology: A Specific Design for a Specific Biological Application.

Mechanosensing and mechanotransduction pathways between the Extracellular Matrix (ECM) and cells form the essential crosstalk that regulates cell homeostasis, tissue development, morphology, maintenance, and function. Understanding these mechanisms involves creating an appropriate cell support that elicits signals to guide cellular functions. In this context, polymers can serve as ideal molecules for producing biomaterials designed to mimic the characteristics of the ECM, thereby triggering responsive mechanisms that closely resemble those induced by a natural physiological system.

Empathy at school project: Effects of didactics of emotions® on emotional competence, cortisol secretion and inflammatory profile in primary school children. A controlled longitudinal psychobiological study.

Background: There is mounting evidence of the presence of chronic stress among children during primary school: girls and boys under the age of 15 years often experience anxiety, irritability and sleeping problems with negative consequences on scholastic climate and the spread of bullying and dropping out of school. The promotion of emotion regulation within school environment through innovative didactic methodologies represents a valuable tool for teachers and parents to reduce emotional distress and associated risk behaviours and to promote wellbeing.

Aim: Our research aims to explore the psychological and biological consequences of teaching emotional training in an experimental group of Italian Primary School children.

Distinct limbic connectivity in left and right benign mesial temporal lobe epilepsy: Evidence from a resting state functional MRI study.

Background: Functional connectivity (FC) studies showed that pharmaco-resistant mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) affects not only the limbic system, but also several extra-limbic regions, including areas belonging to resting state networks. Less is known about FC in subjects with benign MTLE (i.e.

Negative DAT-SPECT in Old Onset Parkinson's Disease: An Additional Pitfall?

Background: Scans without evidence of dopaminergic deficit (SWEDDs) refer to patients clinically diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (PD), but showing normal findings on dopamine transporter single-photon emission computed tomography (DAT-SPECT). This entity remains highly debated, but recent findings suggesting that DAT-SPECT does not reflect either nigral cell bodies or striatal fibers of dopaminergic nigrostriatal neurons could improve our understanding of SWEDDs. Notably, compensatory downregulation of DAT in the early stages of PD seems to be less efficient in older-onset than in young-onset patients.

Post-Stroke Detection of Subclinical Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation in Patients With Embolic Stroke of Undetermined Source in the Real World Practice: The Empoli ESUS Atrial Fibrillation (E 2 AF) Study.

Background: Subclinical paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the main occult causative mechanisms of embolic stroke of undetermined source (ESUS). Aim of this study was to identify AF predictors, and to develop a score to predict the probability of AF detection in ESUS.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed ESUS patients undergoing 2-week external electrocardiographic monitoring.

Fluid Biomarkers in Alzheimer's Disease and Other Neurodegenerative Disorders: Toward Integrative Diagnostic Frameworks and Tailored Treatments.

The diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) represents an increasing social burden, with the unsolved issue of disease-modifying therapies (DMTs). The failure of clinical trials treating Alzheimer's Disease (AD) so far highlighted the need for a different approach in drug design and patient selection. Identifying subjects in the prodromal or early symptomatic phase is critical to slow down neurodegeneration, but the implementation of screening programs with this aim will have an ethical and social aftermath.

Dopamine Transporter Imaging, Current Status of a Potential Biomarker: A Comprehensive Review.

A major goal of current clinical research in Parkinson's disease (PD) is the validation and standardization of biomarkers enabling early diagnosis, predicting outcomes, understanding PD pathophysiology, and demonstrating target engagement in clinical trials. Molecular imaging with specific dopamine-related tracers offers a practical indirect imaging biomarker of PD, serving as a powerful tool to assess the status of presynaptic nigrostriatal terminals. In this review we provide an update on the dopamine transporter (DAT) imaging in PD and translate recent findings to potentially valuable clinical practice applications.

Effects of Tourism on the Habitat Use by a Threatened Large Rodent at a World Heritage Site.

The mara is a large endemic rodent, which presents a marked decline in its populations, mainly because of habitat loss, hunting, and overgrazing. The Ischigualasto Provincial Park is a hyper-arid protected area at the Monte Desert of Argentina with an overall low plant cover. Our objective was to determine the influence of environmental variables and tourist activities on mara's habitat use.

Statins in Parkinson's Disease: Influence on Motor Progression.

Background: It has been speculated that stains are neuroprotective and are associated with a reduced risk of Parkinson's disease (PD), but only a few studies have investigated the influence of statins on the progression of PD.

Objective: To evaluate whether long-term statin use may affect motor progression in a large cohort of de novo patients with PD.

Methods: We conducted a 4-year retrospective observational cohort study to assess patients with PD.

Does the Degree of Trunk Bending Predict Patient Disability, Motor Impairment, Falls, and Back Pain in Parkinson's Disease?

Postural abnormalities in Parkinson's disease (PD) form a spectrum of functional trunk misalignment, ranging from a "typical" parkinsonian stooped posture to progressively greater degrees of spine deviation. To analyze the association between degree of postural abnormalities and disability and to determine cut-off values of trunk bending associated with limitations in activities of daily living (ADLs), motor impairment, falls, and back pain. The study population was 283 PD patients with ≥5° of forward trunk bending (FTB), lateral trunk bending (LTB) or forward neck bending (FNB).

Dopamine Transporter, Age, and Motor Complications in Parkinson's Disease: A Clinical and Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography Study.

Background: Previous molecular imaging studies comparing dopamine function in vivo between early-onset PD and late-onset PD patients have shown contradictory results, presumably attributable to the aging-related decline in nigrostriatal function.

Objectives: (1) To investigate baseline dopamine transporter availability in early-onset PD (<55 years) and late-onset PD (>70 years) patients, z-scores values of putamen and caudate [ I]-ioflupane uptake were calculated using the respective age-matched controls in order to correct for early presynaptic compensatory mechanisms and age-related dopamine neuron loss; (2) to examine the associations of such baseline single-photon emission computed tomography measures with the emergence of late-disease motor complications.

Methods: In this retrospective study, 105 de novo PD patients who underwent [ I]-ioflupane single-photon emission computed tomography at time of diagnosis were divided into three tertile groups according to age at disease onset (35 early-onset PD and 40 late-onset PD patients).

Validity of the wall goniometer as a screening tool to detect postural abnormalities in Parkinson's disease.

Introduction: Software-based measurements of postural abnormalities in Parkinson's disease (PD) are the gold standard but may be time-consuming and not always feasible in clinical practice. Wall goniometer (WG) is an easier, quicker, and inexpensive instrument for screening patients with postural abnormalities, but no studies have investigated its validity so far. The aim of this study was to investigate the validity of the WG to measure postural abnormalities.

Postural Abnormalities in Parkinson's Disease: An Epidemiological and Clinical Multicenter Study.

Introduction: The overall frequency of postural abnormalities (PA) in Parkinson's disease (PD) is unknown. We evaluated the overall prevalence of PA and assessed the association with demographic and clinical variables.

Methods: For this multicenter, cross-sectional study, consecutive PD outpatients attending 7 tertiary Italian centers were enrolled.

The effects of poaching and habitat structure on anti-predator behavioral strategies: A guanaco population in a high cold desert as case study.

The effects of poaching on wildlife have been widely studied in conservation biology and can be heterogeneous, particularly on ungulates. These effects can be estimated through different methodologies whose use depends on several conditions such as Flight-initiation distance (FID). Our objectives were: 1- to evaluate whether poaching affects the FID and group structure of a guanaco (Lama guanicoe) population in a high cold desert in San Juan (Argentina); 2- to assess whether habitat structure (slope and vegetation cover) influences FID and group structure in this population.

Bilateral concurrent massive hemoptysis successfully controlled with double endobronchial tamponade. A case report.

Massive hemoptysis is a potentially lethal situation for which emergency diagnosis and treatment are necessary. Endobronchial tamponade is widely used as a method for conservative management of massive hemoptysis by occluding the bleeding bronchus with a balloon catheter. Some balloon catheters can be introduced through the inner channel of a flexible bronchoscope.

Tracheomalacia associated with Mounier-Kuhn syndrome in the Intensive Care Unit: treatment with Freitag stent. A case report.

Tracheomalacia is a process characterized by softness of the supporting tracheal cartilages, by the extension of the posterior membranous wall and by reduction of the tracheal antero-posterior diameter. Exceptionally, tracheomalacia can be associated with tracheobronchomegaly or Mounier-Kuhn syndrome. Fibro-bronchoscopy represents the ''gold standard'' for diagnosis.

Older adult multiorgan donors and misdiagnosed tumor.

Background: In these last years, the increase in organ donations is mostly due to old patients died of primary vascular cerebral diseases. In this kind of patients some undiagnosed cancers can be present and can be transmitted to the receiver. Aim of this study is to carry out a research in order to identify any undiagnosed cancer which can be present during the period of encephalic death.

[Complete neurologic recovery after prolonged cardiac arrest caused by refractory ventricular fibrillation. Clinical case].

The clinical case of a 45-year-old patient referred to us for chest pain and with clinical examination and ECG negative for ischaemic damage, is reported. The patient, hospitalised in a bed without an ECG monitor, presented heart failure due to ventricular fibrillation. He was re-examined first with ventilation and EMC and then with defibrillation.

[Unilateral pulmonary edema caused by heart failure. Report of 2 clinical cases].

The authors present two case reports of cardiogenic unilateral pulmonary edema. The information provided by hemodynamic monitoring have not been essential for diagnosis which was bases on clinical, radiological and echocardiographic findings and confirmed by the clinical response to a specific treatment. The authors briefly review the mechanisms which may cause the atypical distribution of the cardiogenic pulmonary edema.