[Professional intervention with young people inserted in the juvenile criminal responsibility system against the consumption of psychoactive substances: punishability or protection of rights?].

This paper intends to analyze the professional intervention in devices that work with young people inserted in the Juvenile Criminal Responsibility System, in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, denaturing the punitive view of the problem of psychoactive substance use. The proposed analysis is based on understanding the consumption as a problem of health and from current regulations to seek to problematize the punitive response, to account for the different levels of consumption and to denaturalize the stigmatizing relationship between crime and problematic consumption.

Shaping femtosecond laser pulses at short wavelength with grazing-incidence optics.

We present the design of an extreme ultraviolet (XUV) pulse shaper relying on reflective optics. The instrument will allow tailoring of the time-frequency spectrum of femtosecond pulses generated by seeded free-electron lasers (FEL) and high-harmonic generation (HHG) sources down to a central wavelength of ~15 nm. The device is based on the geometry of a 4f grating compressor that is a standard concept in ultrafast laser science and technology.

Attosecond interferometry with self-amplified spontaneous emission of a free-electron laser.

Light-phase-sensitive techniques, such as coherent multidimensional spectroscopy, are well-established in a broad spectral range, already spanning from radio-frequencies in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to visible and ultraviolet wavelengths in nonlinear optics with table-top lasers. In these cases, the ability to tailor the phases of electromagnetic waves with high precision is essential. Here we achieve phase control of extreme-ultraviolet pulses from a free-electron laser (FEL) on the attosecond timescale in a Michelson-type all-reflective interferometric autocorrelator.

Mapping few-femtosecond slices of ultra-relativistic electron bunches.

Free-electron lasers are unique sources of intense and ultra-short x-ray pulses that led to major scientific breakthroughs across disciplines from matter to materials and life sciences. The essential element of these devices are micrometer-sized electron bunches with high peak currents, low energy spread, and low emittance. Advanced FEL concepts such as seeded amplifiers rely on the capability of analyzing and controlling the electron beam properties with few-femtosecond time resolution.

Free-electron laser multiplex driven by a superconducting linear accelerator.

Free-electron lasers (FELs) generate femtosecond XUV and X-ray pulses at peak powers in the gigawatt range. The FEL user facility FLASH at DESY (Hamburg, Germany) is driven by a superconducting linear accelerator with up to 8000 pulses per second. Since 2014, two parallel undulator beamlines, FLASH1 and FLASH2, have been in operation.

Patient safety culture: an Italian experience.

Aims: To understand what level of awareness health professionals working in a hospital of Northern Italy had of the patient safety culture by using the Italian version of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture questionnaire and also validate its use in this setting.

Background: The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture questionnaire was developed by the Agency for Health Research and Quality in 2008 and validated by several studies. Therefore, we decided to test the Italian version of this tool to see if it could be used effectively to measure and appraise patient safety culture also in Italy.

[The results of the experimental prospective study on the effectiveness and efficiency of the implementation of clinical pathways].

Our study was undertaken to determine how the use of care pathways in hospital affected the quality of the care of the patients. We performed a cluster-randomized trial. The use of diagnostic procedures and of medical treatments was more appropriate in the care pathways group, as well as the discharge process.

Large striatocapsular infarcts: clinical features and risk factors.

We defined large striatocapsular infarcts as subcortical softenings of more than 20 mm in diameter involving the territories of the lateral and medial groups of lenticulostriate arteries. The aim of this study of 56 patients was to compare the clinical features and risk factors of these infarcts with those of cortical and lacunar infarcts. On the whole, our data suggest that both the clinical features and risk factors of large striatocapsular infarcts are similar to those of cortical infarcts, but significantly different from those of lacunar infarcts.

Peripheral nerve vasculitis: a clinico-pathological study.

The clinico-pathological findings of 20 nerve biopsies consecutively performed at the neuropathological laboratory of Verona University Hospital were reviewed in order to establish the most important clinical manifestations of peripheral nerve vasculitis and to determine the role of biopsy in corroborating the diagnosis. Dystal sensori motor polyneuropathy was the most frequent clinical manifestation, confirming previous clinico-pathological studies and suggesting a more widespread pathological process than usually supposed. The biopsy was the basis of the diagnosis since it established or substantially modified the clinical diagnosis.

Paraballism associated with anterior opercular syndrome: a case report.

We describe the combination of acute bilateral ballism and anterior opercular syndrome in a 75-year-old female hypertensive patient with bilateral multiple small infarcts involving the basal ganglia, the subcortical white matter and the area of the subthalamic nucleus, detected by CT scan and MRI. These clinical manifestations were accompanied by apathy, somnolence and cognitive changes usually observed in cortical involvement. Pathogenetic mechanisms for this unusual clinical picture are discussed on the basis of CT, MRI, and SPECT findings.

Peripheral nervous system involvement as the only neurological manifestation of infective endocarditis.

We report a case of acute endocarditis with the unusual presentation of mononeuritis multiplex at onset. Mononeuropathy was the only detected neurological sign. The presence of muscular abscesses compressing the peripheral nervous system could lie at the basis of the pathophysiological mechanism responsible for acute mononeuropathy.

Acute confusional states secondary to infarctions in the territory of the posterior cerebral artery in elderly patients.

Acute confusional states and agitated delirium are among the most common psychopathologic disorders in the elderly. However, they are rarely reported in the course of infarcts in the territory of the posterior cerebral artery. This study involving thirteen patients aged more than 65 years suggests that acute confusional states from posterior cerebral artery infarcts are less rare than usually thought, although the diagnosis may be difficult during the acute phase.

Dementia syndrome in patients with postsurgical hypoparathyroidism and extensive brain calcifications.

The authors report the cases of 2 patients with extensive brain calcifications after thyroidectomy, showing behavioral and cognitive changes suggesting a subcortical dementia syndrome. On the basis of clinical, neuroradiologic and SPECT features they discuss the role of the brain calcifications in the pathophysiology of associated cognitive disorders and the putative mechanisms for the observed neuropsychological disorders.

Lacunar syndromes due to non ischaemic causes: prevalence and clinical findings (study of 19 patients).

137 consecutive patients with Lacunar Syndrome (LS) were studied in order to evaluate the prevalence between ischaemic and not ischaemic forms. The lacunar infarcts (LI) were 118, the not ischaemic ones 19. These latter were caused by primary intracerebral hemorrhages with rapid recovery (12 cases), multiple sclerosis (3 cases) and unruptured top of the basilar aneurysm, chronic subdural haematoma, Arnold-Chiari malformation type 1, multiple metastases (1 case respectively).

Neurotoxicity of idiopathic hypereosinophilia on a case with simultaneous CNS and PNS involvement.

We report the case of a patient with idiopathic hypereosinophilia in whom both central and peripheral nervous systems were affected. We discuss possible pathogenetic mechanisms explaining the neurotoxicity of idiopathic hypereosinophilia. Corticosteroid therapy should be given early and continued indefinitely.

Painful tonic spasms associated with subcortical infarction.

The authors describe the case of a patient in whom painful tonic spasms developed as a consequence of a small infarct involving the lateral aspect of the putamen, the external capsule, and the subcortical white matter of the posterior insular region. Possible pathogenetic mechanisms explaining painful tonic spasms are discussed.

Proliferative retinopathy: value of the oscillatory potentials.

Oscillatory potentials (OPs) and retinal fluorescein angiography (RFA) were performed in 45 patients with diabetes mellitus. OPs were normal in 28 patients, altered (increased latencies and or inter-peak times) but with normal shape in 9, changes in morphology in 8: none of these patients had normal RFA, 2 had no proliferative retinopathy, 6 proliferative retinopathy (PR). In the authors' opinion OP changes in morphology are nearly always caused by a serious diabetic retinopathy, often by a PR.

Opsoclonus in a patient with Guillain-Barré syndrome.

A 54 year-old woman showed the unusual association of a Guillain-Barré syndrome and opsoclonus, a rare eye movement characterized by involuntary bursts of jerking, ataxic and multidirectional saccades, without an intersaccadic interval. Since opsoclonus is a phenomenon described exclusively in CNS diseases, the case reported supports the hypothesis of CNS involvement in some cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome. The latter is generally considered an immune-mediated disease and an immune pathogenesis is also supposed in opsoclonus associated with systemic malignancies; besides, in the patient reported, the self-limiting nature of the disturbance and the lack of MRI lesions suggest that opsoclonus may result from an immune-related phenomenon causing a functional and transitory dysfunction of the CNS.

Late onset unilateral asterixis secondary to posterior cerebral artery infarction.

Unilateral asterixis developed in a 56 year old man, 5 months after an infarct in the posterior cerebral artery territory, involving the posterolateral nuclear complex of the thalamus, documented by CT-scan and MRI. Unilateral asterixis in rarely reported in association with thalamic lesions and usually develops as an immediate postictal phenomenon. We discuss possible physiopathological mechanisms explaining the occurrence and the delayed onset of these involuntary movements.

Retinal oscillatory potential abnormalities in patients with chronic renal failure, before and after dialytic treatment.

Nineteen patients with chronic renal failure were studied, oscillatory potentials (OPs) being recorded shortly before and after dialytic treatment. Mean values of either onset latency (O1 latency) and duration of the complex (O1-N4 inter-peak latency) were found to be significantly longer in patients than in controls (p < 0.001).

[Infarction of the anterior choroidal territory. Clinical and tomodensitometric study of 11 cases].

Clinical features of anterior choroidal artery (ACA) territory infarct are hemiplegia, hemi-anaesthesia and homonymous hemianopia. However this syndrome in its complete form is of rare occurrence, since one or more signs or symptoms may be lacking. The Authors describe 11 patients with CT-documented infarctions in the (ACA) territory in order to establish clinical-CT correlations and possible risk factors.

[Femoral neuropathy, diabetes mellitus, reduced glucose tolerance. Possible correlations].

44 cases are reported of definite femoral mononeuropathy, by clinical and neurophysiological criteria. In 11 patients there was diabetes mellitus, in 10 compressions, in 23 no determined etiology was identified. Among these 23 patients, 15 showed glucose intolerance.