Lung Function Decline in Pulmonary Alveolar Microlithiasis.

Pulmonary alveolar microlithiasis (PAM) is a rare lung disorder characterized by calcium phosphate microliths in the alveolar spaces. Autosomal recessive mutations on the SLC34A2 gene lead to altered type IIb sodium phosphate cotransporter in alveolar type-II cells of the lung, thus resulting in aggregations of microliths in the alveoli. To date, more than 1000 cases have been reviewed by expert pulmonary clinicians.

Argumentation schemes, fallacies, and evidence in politicians' argumentative tweets-A coded dataset.

This coded database presents a corpus of argumentative tweets published by four politicians (Matteo Salvini, Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, and Joe Biden) within 6 months from their taking office, which corresponds to the official end of their election campaign. The coding is based on a threefold method of analysis based on the instruments of argumentation theory and pragmatics. First, the types of arguments are recognized and classified according to a systematic organization of the argumentation schemes developed in the literature.

Multicultural classroom discourse dataset on teachers' and students' dialogic empathy.

This dataset belongs to a large-scale educational intervention project introducing cultural literacy learning in schools. The dataset includes transcribed dialogic interactions from 111 lessons conducted in classrooms of five countries: England, Portugal, Germany, Spain, and Cyprus. The lessons were part of the same Cultural Literacy Learning Programme made available to teachers from three age groups (pre-primary, primary, secondary) to implement with their ordinary classes during ten sessions.

The Impact of Fixed Triple Therapy with Beclometasone/Formoterol/Glycopyrronium on Health Status and Adherence in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in an Italian Context of Real Life: The TRITRIAL Study Protocol.

Background: The fixed triple combination Beclometasone dipropionate/Formoterol fumarate/Glycopyrronium (BDP/FF/G, Trimbow), an extrafine formulation in a unique pressurized metered dose inhaler, is indicated for the maintenance treatment in adult patients with moderate to severe COPD, not adequately treated by ICS/LABA or LABA/LAMA. Besides the evidence from three randomized controlled trials, the impact of fixed triple therapy has not been extensively evaluated in a real-world population of COPD patients. TRITRIAL (TRIple Therapy in Real life: Impact on Adherence and HeaLth status) is a non-interventional study to assess the effect of BDP/FF/G in a real world setting in Italy.

Respiratory Needs in Patients with Type 1 Spinal Muscular Atrophy Treated with Nusinersen.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of nusinersen on respiratory function of patients with type 1 spinal muscular atrophy.

Study Design: Observational, longitudinal cohort study. We collected respiratory data from 118 children with type 1 spinal muscular atrophy and differing pulmonary requirements and conducted a semistructured qualitative interview among a subsample of caregivers at baseline, 6 months, and 10 months after the first nusinersen treatment.

Coding Problematic Understanding in Patient-provider Interactions.

This article proposes a coding scheme for identifying and assessing linguistic evidence of problematic understanding in health-care provider communication with patients affected by type 2 diabetes mellitus. Drawing on the existing literature in pragmatics and linguistics, the scheme is grounded on the distinctions between the different types of linguistic evidence of the occurrence of a misunderstanding or a problematic understanding, divided into three levels (stronger, acceptable and weak) based on their probative force. The application of the scheme is illustrated through a pilot study, conducted on an Italian corpus of 46 transcripts of videotaped consultations between six health-care providers and 13 patients affected by diabetes mellitus type 2.

Current and Future Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Therapy.

The last years have led to advances in the therapeutic management of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), mainly through the discovery of new pathological pathways and drugs and better design of clinical trials. The objective of this review is both to describe the current therapies approved for the treatment of IPF and the emerging therapeutic approaches. Currently, nintedanib and pirfenidone are the basis of IPF therapy, based on the results of large randomized clinical trials showing their safety and efficacy in reducing disease progression.

Newborns are sensitive to multiple cues for word segmentation in continuous speech.

Before infants can learn words, they must identify those words in continuous speech. Yet, the speech signal lacks obvious boundary markers, which poses a potential problem for language acquisition (Swingley, Philos Trans R Soc Lond. Series B, Biol Sci 364(1536), 3617-3632, 2009).

Breathomics for Assessing the Effects of Treatment and Withdrawal With Inhaled Beclomethasone/Formoterol in Patients With COPD.

Prospective pharmacological studies on breathomics profiles in COPD patients have not been previously reported. We assessed the effects of treatment and withdrawal of an extrafine inhaled corticosteroid (ICS)-long-acting β-agonist (LABA) fixed dose combination (FDC) using a multidimensional classification model including breathomics. A pilot, proof-of-concept, pharmacological study was undertaken in 14 COPD patients on maintenance treatment with inhaled fluticasone propionate/salmeterol (500/50 μg b.

measure of neonate brain optical properties and hemodynamic parameters by time-domain near-infrared spectroscopy.

By exploiting a multichannel portable instrument for time-domain near-infrared spectroscopy (TD-NIRS), we characterized healthy neonates' brains in term of optical properties and hemodynamic parameters. In particular, we assessed the absolute values of the absorption and reduced scattering coefficients at two wavelengths, together with oxy-, deoxy- and total hemoglobin concentrations, and the blood oxygen saturation of the neonates' brains. In this study, 33 healthy full-term neonates were tested, obtaining the following median values: 0.

Investigational drugs for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

IPF is a specific form of chronic fibrosing interstitial pneumonia of unknown cause, characterized by progressive worsening in lung function and an unfavorable prognosis. Current concepts on IPF pathogenesis are based on a dysregulated wound healing response, leading to an over production of extracellular matrix. Based on recent research however, several other mechanisms are now proposed as potential targets for novel therapeutic strategies.

Brain regions and functional interactions supporting early word recognition in the face of input variability.

Perception and cognition in infants have been traditionally investigated using habituation paradigms, assuming that babies' memories in laboratory contexts are best constructed after numerous repetitions of the very same stimulus in the absence of interference. A crucial, yet open, question regards how babies deal with stimuli experienced in a fashion similar to everyday learning situations-namely, in the presence of interfering stimuli. To address this question, we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy to test 40 healthy newborns on their ability to encode words presented in concomitance with other words.

New treatment directions for IPF: current status of ongoing and upcoming clinical trials.

The main objective of this review is to explore the wide and expanding field of new clinical trials in IPF. Recent trials have confirmed the efficacy of the approved drugs pirfenidone and nintedanib; nonetheless, the discovery of new biological pathways has opened new horizons in this field. Areas covered: New strategies against matrix deposition are under study and so is for the role of immunity and autoimmunity.

Electronic Nose and Exhaled Breath NMR-based Metabolomics Applications in Airways Disease.

Breathomics, the multidimensional molecular analysis of exhaled breath, includes analysis of exhaled breath with gas-chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and electronic noses (e-noses), and metabolomics of exhaled breath condensate (EBC), a non-invasive technique which provides information on the composition of airway lining fluid, generally by high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy or MS methods. Metabolomics is the identification and quantification of small molecular weight metabolites in a biofluid. Specific profiles of volatile compounds in exhaled breath and metabolites in EBC (breathprints) are potentially useful surrogate markers of inflammatory respiratory diseases.

On the edge of language acquisition: inherent constraints on encoding multisyllabic sequences in the neonate brain.

To understand language, humans must encode information from rapid, sequential streams of syllables - tracking their order and organizing them into words, phrases, and sentences. We used Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) to determine whether human neonates are born with the capacity to track the positions of syllables in multisyllabic sequences. After familiarization with a six-syllable sequence, the neonate brain responded to the change (as shown by an increase in oxy-hemoglobin) when the two edge syllables switched positions but not when two middle syllables switched positions (Experiment 1), indicating that they encoded the syllables at the edges of sequences better than those in the middle.

Systematic and Meta-Analytic Review: Triggering Agents of Parental Perception of Child's Vulnerability in Instances of Preterm Birth.

Objective: Parental perception of a child vulnerability (PPCV) to illness, not justified by medically noticeable symptoms, is a situation well known to medical and paramedical staff. It is still disputed whether PPCV is triggered by the child's health problems or by parental emotional status. This review is aimed to clarify the etiology of PPCV in instances of preterm birth.

Size at birth by gestational age and hospital mortality in very preterm infants: results of the area-based ACTION project.

Background: Size at birth is an important predictor of neonatal outcomes, but there are inconsistencies on the definitions and optimal cut-offs.

Aims: The aim of this study is to compute birth size percentiles for Italian very preterm singleton infants and assess relationship with hospital mortality.

Study Design: Prospective area-based cohort study.

Mortality and major morbidities in very preterm infants born from assisted conception or naturally conceived: results of the area-based ACTION study.

Background: The use of assisted conception (AC) has been associated with higher risk of adverse perinatal outcome. Few data are available on the outcome of AC-neonates when pregnancy ends before 32 weeks of gestational age.The aim of this study was to compare the short-term outcome of AC- and naturally conceived preterm infants <32 weeks gestation.

Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry measurement of leukotrienes in asthma and other respiratory diseases.

Leukotrienes (LTs), including cysteinyl-LTs (LTC4, LTD4 and LTE4) and LTB4, are potent inflammatory lipid mediators which have been involved in the pathophysiology of respiratory diseases. LC-MS/MS techniques for measuring LT concentrations in sputum supernatants, serum, urine and exhaled breath condensate (EBC) have been developed. In asthmatic adults, reported LTB4 and LTE4 concentrations in sputum range from 79 to 7,220 pg/ml and from 11.

Increased morbidity and mortality in very preterm/VLBW infants with congenital heart disease.

Purpose: To study the association between congenital heart diseases (CHD) and in-hospital mortality and morbidity of very preterm/very low birth weight (VLBW) infants.

Methods: The area-based prospective cohort study ACTION included all infants with gestational age (GA) 22-31 weeks or birth weight <1,500 g admitted to neonatal care between July 2003 and June 2005 in six Italian regions (n = 3,684). CHD were coded according to ICD9-CM.

Pregnancy disorders leading to very preterm birth influence neonatal outcomes: results of the population-based ACTION cohort study.

Background: We examined the relationships between -pregnancy disorders leading to very preterm birth -(spontaneous preterm labor, prelabor premature rupture of -membranes (PPROM), hypertension/preeclampsia, -intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), antenatal hemorrhage, and maternal -infection), both in isolation and grouped together as -"disorders of placentation" (hypertensive disorders and IUGR) vs. -"presumed infection/inflammation" (all the others), and several unfavorable neonatal outcomes.

Methods: We examined a population-based prospective cohort of 2,085 singleton infants of 23-31 wk gestational age (GA) born in six Italian regions (the Accesso alle Cure e Terapie Intensive Ostetriche e Neonatali (ACTION) study).