Is a Good Sleep on Mosquito-Free Nights Worth the Risk of Lymphoma Associated with the Use of Household Insecticides? A Case-Control Study of Lymphoma Subtypes in Adults.

Background: The evidence linking the use of household pesticides and the risk of lymphoma is scanty.

Methods: We explored the hypothesis in a population-based case-control study on lymphoma conducted in Sardinia, Italy, in 1998-2004, including 325 cases and 465 population controls and data on lifetime frequency, seasonality, and years of use of household insecticides and potential confounders. We calculated the risk of lymphoma (all subtypes) and its major subtypes associated with using household insecticides in three time windows (up to 1978, from 1979-2001, and 2002 onwards) with unconditional logistic regression adjusting by age, sex, education, and occupational exposure to pesticides.

The impact of education on patients' psycho-emotional status during allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: a multicenter prospective study by thes Gruppo Italiano Trapianto di Midollo Osseo.

Purpose: Depressive disorders are the most common manifestation of psychological distress in allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Few studies have yet investigated the relationship between therapeutic educational interventions and outcomes in these patients with specific attention to those related to mental health. Aim of this study was to understand how much educational intervention can represent a protective factor in preventing psycho-emotional distress-related issues in this setting.

Antibiotic-Loaded Hyperbranched Polyester Embedded into Peptide-Enriched Silk Fibroin for the Treatment of Orthopedic or Dental Infections.

The development of innovative osteoconductive matrices, which are enriched with antibiotic delivery nanosystems, has the invaluable potential to achieve both local contaminant eradication and the osseointegration of implanted devices. With the aim of producing safe, bioactive materials that have osteoconductive and antibacterial properties, novel, antibiotic-loaded, functionalized nanoparticles (AFN)-based on carboxylic acid functionalized hyperbranched aliphatic polyester (CHAP) that can be integrated into peptide-enriched silk fibroin (PSF) matrices with osteoconductive properties-were successfully synthesized. The obtained AFNPSF sponges were first physico-chemically characterized and then tested in vitro against eukaryotic cells and bacteria involved in orthopedic or oral infections.

Depression, Anxiety and Sleep Alterations in Caregivers of Persons With Dementia After 1-Year of COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: Social isolation due to COVID-19 pandemic has an important psychological impact particularly in persons with dementia and their informal caregivers.

Aim: To assess frequency and severity of long-term stress-related symptoms in caregivers of patients with dementia 1-year after the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic and to identify predictors of psychological outcomes.

Methods: Eighty-five caregivers were involved in a longitudinal study with 1-year follow-up during pandemic in Italy.

A Route to Translate a Silk-Based Medical Device from Lab to Clinic: The Silk Biomaterials Srl Experience.

The medical device is a nerve conduit entirely made of silk fibroin. It is a tubular scaffold used for repairing peripheral nerve gaps, whose function is to protect the severed nerves and to favor their natural healing process. As any implantable medical device, the conduit must perform its function without causing adverse effects to the patient, meaning that it must be compliant with a range of regulations aimed at evaluating the risks related to the constituent materials and the manufacturing process, the toxicological impact of the processing aids, the biological safety, the functional performance, and the ability to sustain tissue regeneration processes.

Cochlear Implant Results in Older Adults with Post-Lingual Deafness: The Role of "Top-Down" Neurocognitive Mechanisms.

To date, no clear specific cognitive predictors of speech perception outcome in older adult cochlear implant (CI) users have yet emerged. The aim of this prospective study was to increase knowledge on cognitive and clinical predictors of the audiological outcome in adult cochlear implant users. A total of 21 patients with post-lingual deafness, who were candidates for cochlear implantation, were recruited at the Department of Ear, Nose and Throat, University of Torino (Italy) and subjected to a pre-operatory neuropsychological assessment (T0) and an audiological examination after 12 months of implantation (T12).

Night shift work and lymphoma: results from an Italian multicentre case-control study.

Background: Night shift work can disrupt circadian rhythm and cause chronic sleep deprivation, which might increase the risk of lymphoma through immunosuppression and oxidative stress.

Material And Methods: We investigated the association between night shift work and risk of lymphoma subtypes in 867 incident cases and 774 controls, who participated in a multicentre Italian study between 2011 and 2017. Based on questionnaire information, occupational experts assessed the lifetime probability of night shift work, the total number of night shifts and years of night shift work among study participants.

Atopic dermatitis in adolescents: Effectiveness and safety of dupilumab in a 16-week real-life experience during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy.

Dupilumab showed significant improvement of adolescent atopic dermatitis (AD) signs and symptoms in clinical trials, with a good safety profile. Herein we report the real-word effectiveness and safety of dupilumab in adolescents with moderate to severe AD from January to October 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. All patients had a diagnosis of AD for a mean [SD] 12.

Being the Family Caregiver of a Patient With Dementia During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Lockdown.

Family caregivers of patients with dementia are at high risk of stress and burden, and quarantine due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may have increased the risk of psychological disturbances in this population. The current study was carried out during the national lockdown declared in March 2020 by the Italian government as a containment measure of the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic and is the first nationwide survey on the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on the mental health of dementia informal caregivers. Eighty-seven dementia centers evenly distributed on the Italian territory enrolled 4,710 caregiver-patient pairs.

The Carers' Needs Assessment for Dementia (CNA-D): a validation study in the Italian population.

Background: Dementia has devastating consequences for families with important physical, psychological, social, and financial effects. Evaluation of caregiver's needs may be an important step to reduce the burden of family caregivers of dementia patients. An Austrian scale, the Carers' Needs Assessment for Dementia, is now available for measuring the caregiver's needs.

Occupational exposure to glyphosate and risk of lymphoma:results of an Italian multicenter case-control study.

Background: The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) recently classified glyphosate, the most used herbicide worldwide, as a probable human carcinogen. We inquired into the association between occupational exposure to glyphosate and risk of lymphoma subtypes in a multicenter case-control study conducted in Italy.

Methods: The Italian Gene-Environment Interactions in Lymphoma Etiology (ItGxE) study took place in 2011-17 in six Italian centres.

Myroxylon pereirae (balsam of Peru): Still worth testing?

Background: Because Myroxylon pereirae (MP), or balsam of Peru, is nowadays almost not used "as such," and fragrance mix 1 (FM1) apparently is more sensitive in detecting fragrance allergy, the usefulness of testing MP in baseline series was recently questioned.

Objectives: Identification of the number of clinically relevant patch test reactions to MP not detected by FM1.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of 12 030 patients patch tested with MP and FM1 for contact dermatitis between January 2018 and December 2019 in 13 Italian dermatology clinics.

DECISA Project (DErmatology Clinics in Italy: Survey on Alitretinoin): A real-life retrospective cohort multicenter study on 438 subjects with chronic hand eczema.

Alitretinoin is the only systemic agent approved to treat moderate-severe chronic hand eczema (CHE) unresponsive to potent topical corticosteroids. No nationwide Italian data regarding real-life efficacy, safety, and tolerability of treatment are available. The DECISA project (DErmatology Clinics in Italy: Survey on Alitretinoin) retrospectively examined data from a registry including 15 Dermatology Clinics authorized to prescription of alitretinoin for CHE patients.

Bilateral Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex High-Definition Transcranial Direct-Current Stimulation Improves Time-Trial Performance in Elite Cyclists.

Background: The effects of anodal transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) on endurance exercise performance are not yet fully understood. Different stimulated areas and low focality of classical tDCS technique may have led to discordant results.

Purpose: This study investigated the effect of a bilateral anodal high-definition tDCS (HD-tDCS) of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on the cycling time-trial (TT) performance and physiological and perceptual response at moderate intensity in elite cyclists.

Occupational exposure to organic dust and risk of lymphoma subtypes in the EPILYMPH case-control study.

Objectives This study aimed to estimate the risk of lymphoma and its major subtypes in relation to occupational exposure to specific organic dusts. Methods We explored the association in 1853 cases and 1997 controls who participated in the EpiLymph case-control study, conducted in six European countries in 1998-2004. Based on expert assessment of lifetime occupational exposures, we calculated the risk of the major lymphoma subtypes associated with exposure to six specific organic dusts, namely, flour, hardwood, softwood, natural textile, synthetic textile, and leather, and two generic (any types) groups: wood and textile dusts.

An accelerated surface-mediated stress assay of antibody instability for developability studies.

High physical stability is required for the development of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) into successful therapeutic products. Developability assays are used to predict physical stability issues such as high viscosity and poor conformational stability, but protein aggregation remains a challenging property to predict. Among different types of stresses, air-water and solid-liquid interfaces are well known to potentially trigger protein instability and induce aggregation.

Urticaria: recommendations from the Italian Society of Allergology, Asthma and Clinical Immunology and the Italian Society of Allergological, Occupational and Environmental Dermatology.

Background: Urticaria is a disorder affecting skin and mucosal tissues characterized by the occurrence of wheals, angioedema or both, the latter defining the urticaria-angioedema syndrome. It is estimated that 12-22% of the general population has suffered at least one subtype of urticaria during life, but only a small percentage (estimated at 7.6-16%) has acute urticaria, because it is usually self-limited and resolves spontaneously without requiring medical attention.

Metacognitive impairment in patients with episodic and chronic migraine.

Migraine is one of the most common medical disorder in the world. Metacognition is the ability to monitor one's own cognitive functioning and consequently direct one's behavior. In adult migraine patients, the neuropsychological profile has been poorly investigated, and metacognitive functions have never been assessed.

Dynamic Simulation of a Fe-Ga Energy Harvester Prototype Through a Preisach-Type Hysteresis Model.

This paper presents the modeling of an Fe-Ga energy harvester prototype, within a large range of values of operating parameters (mechanical preload, amplitude and frequency of dynamic load, electric load resistance). The simulations, based on a hysteretic Preisach-type model, employ a voltage-driven finite element formulation using the fixed-point technique, to handle the material nonlinearities. Due to the magneto-mechanical characteristics of Fe-Ga, a preliminary tuning must be performed for each preload to individualize the fixed point constant, to ensure a good convergence of the method.

Methylation alteration of as a predictive, diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a clinically heterogeneous disease characterized by the clonal expansion of malignant B cells. To predict the clinical course of the disease, the identification of diagnostic biomarkers is urgently needed. Aberrant methylation patterns may predict CLL development and its course, being very early changes during carcinogenesis.