Workplace physical aggressions in Italy and Emilia Romagna region.

Background: Workplace physical aggressions determine severe consequences for people and organizations. Previous studies reported their spread in organizations and described factors related to their occurrence (e.g.

Evaluation of the Impact of Cognitive Training on Quality of Life in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation in a group of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients.

Methods: Thirty-four patients were included in this study and randomly allocated either to treatment with multidisciplinary rehabilitation plus cognitive training or to treatment with multidisciplinary rehabilitation alone.

Results: After 3 months of cognitive treatment, the patients assigned to the rehabilitation plus cognitive training group displayed an improvement in the cognitive test of executive function and a marked improvement in quality of life (QoL).

Influence of psychologic features on rehabilitation outcomes in patients with subacute stroke trained with robotic-aided walking therapy.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate whether the rehabilitation outcomes with robotic-aided gait therapy may be affected by patients' and caregivers' psychologic features after subacute stroke.

Design: This is a controlled, longitudinal, observational pilot study conducted on 42 patients divided in robotic-assisted gait training plus conventional physical therapy group, robotic-assisted gait training dropout group, and conventional physical therapy group. The outcome measures were walking ability (Functional Ambulation Category) and independency in activities of daily living (Barthel Index) measured before and after intervention.

Risk factors for operated carpal tunnel syndrome: a multicenter population-based case-control study.

Background: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a socially and economically relevant disease caused by compression or entrapment of the median nerve within the carpal tunnel. This population-based case-control study aims to investigate occupational/non-occupational risk factors for surgically treated CTS.

Methods: Cases (n = 220) aged 18-65 years were randomly drawn from 13 administrative databases of citizens who were surgically treated with carpal tunnel release during 2001.

Feeding behavior in mammals including humans.

The complex control of food intake and energy metabolism in mammals relies on the ability of the brain to integrate multiple signals indicating the nutritional state and the energy level of the organism and to produce appropriate responses in terms of food intake, energy expenditure, and metabolic activity. Central regulation of feeding is organized as a long-loop mechanism involving humoral signals and afferent neuronal pathways to the brain, processing in hypothalamic neuronal circuits, and descending commands using vagal and spinal neurons. Sensor mechanisms or receptors sensitive to glucose and fatty acid metabolism, neuropeptide and cannabinoid receptors, as well as neurotransmitters and neuromodulators synthesized and secreted within the brain itself are all signals integrated in the hypothalamus, which therefore functions as an integrator of signals from central and peripheral structures.