Managing the unexpected: Bicultural identity integration during the COVID-19 emergency.

Unexpected and sudden emergency situations such as COVID-19 may render ethnic minorities particularly vulnerable to experiencing negative outcomes. Yet, we put forward that Bicultural Identity Integration (BII) - the degree to which bicultural individuals perceive their cultural identities as compatible and overlapping - may represent a resource in times of emergencies, since it may positively influence, through enhancement of psychological well-being, how bicultural individuals respond in terms of distress and coping strategies. Based on this assumption, the present study aimed at examining the relationship between BII and responses to COVID-19.

Daylight photodynamic therapy with 5-aminolevulinic acid 5% gel for the treatment of mild-to-moderate inflammatory acne.

Background: Acne vulgaris is a chronic inflammatory disease that frequently occurs in adolescence. This common condition is often treated with topical or systemic therapies according to severity. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) with topical delta-aminolaevulinic acid is a novel drug-sparing, but time-consuming approach.

Algorithmic reproduction of asymmetry and border cut-off parameters according to the ABCD rule for dermoscopy.

Background: Semiquantitative algorithms were applied to dermoscopic images to improve the clinical diagnosis for melanoma.

Objective: The aim of the study was to develop a computerized method for automated quantification of the 'A' (asymmetry) and 'B' (border cut-off) parameters, according to the ABCD rule for dermoscopy, thus reproducing human evaluation.

Methods: Three hundred and thirty-one melanocytic lesion images, referring to 113 melanomas and 218 melanocytic nevi, acquired by means of a digital videodermatoscope, were considered.

Reflectance-mode confocal microscopy of pigmented skin lesions--improvement in melanoma diagnostic specificity.

Background: In vivo confocal microscopy enables skin visualization with a quasihistopathologic resolution.

Objective: We sought to describe confocal features in melanocytic lesions and to evaluate their diagnostic significance for melanoma (MM) identification.

Methods: Thirty seven MMs, 49 acquired nevi, and 16 Spitz/Reed nevi, presenting equivocal clinicodermoscopic aspects were investigated by confocal microscopy.

Ocular blood flow evaluation in injured and healthy fellow eyes.

Purpose: To assess if injured eyes develop ocular blood flow disturbances that may contribute to development of traumatic glaucoma.

Methods: Twenty-five eyes of 25 patients hospitalized from January 1997 to July 1999 for blunt (15) or penetrating (10) eye injury and elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) (>23 mm Hg) were controlled at least 24 months after the trauma and underwent visual field examination, pulsatile ocular blood flow (pOBF), and color Doppler imaging (CDI) analysis of ophthalmic artery, central retinal artery, nasal and temporal short posterior ciliary arteries. Uninjured healthy eye was used as control.

Colors in atypical nevi: a computer description reproducing clinical assessment.

Background/purpose: Atypical nevi (AN) share some dermoscopic features with early melanoma (MM), and computer elaboration of digital images could represent a useful support to diagnosis to assess automatically colors in AN, and to compare the data with those referring to clearly benign nevi (BN) and MMs.

Methods: An image analysis program enabling the numerical description of color areas in melanocytic lesions was used on 459 videomicroscopic images, referring to 76 AN, 288 clearly BN and 95 MMs.

Results: Black, white and blue-gray were more frequently found in AN than in clearly BN, but less frequently than in MMs.

In vivo assessment of melanocytic nests in nevi and melanomas by reflectance confocal microscopy.

In vivo reflectance confocal microscopy is a novel technique for the noninvasive study and diagnosis of the skin. The aim of this study was to describe and characterize the cytological and architectural aspects of cell clusters in melanocytic lesions observed by confocal microscopy, and to correlate them with routine histopathology. A total of 55 melanocytic lesions comprising 20 melanomas, 25 acquired nevi and 10 Spitz nevi were studied by means of reflectance confocal microscopy, dermoscopy and routine histopathology.

In vivo confocal scanning laser microscopy of pigmented Spitz nevi: comparison of in vivo confocal images with dermoscopy and routine histopathology.

Background: Spitz nevus is a benign melanocytic lesion sometimes mistakenly diagnosed clinically as melanoma.

Objective: Our aim was to evaluate in vivo reflectance-mode confocal scanning laser microscopy (CSLM) aspects of globular Spitz nevi and to correlate them with those of surface microscopy and histopathology.

Methods: A total of 6 Spitz nevi, with globular aspects on epiluminescence observation, were imaged with CSLM and subsequently excised for histopathologic examination.

Automated description of colours in polarized-light surface microscopy images of melanocytic lesions.

The aim of this study was to develop a computerized method for the identification and description of colour areas in melanocytic lesion images based on an approach mimicking the human perception of colours. A colour palette comprising six colour groups (black, dark brown, light brown, blue-grey, red and white) was created by selecting single colour components within melanocytic lesion images acquired using a digital videomicroscope, and was implemented in the image analysis program. For each colour region, the area, the distance from the lesion centroid, the spread, the colour area distribution in the internal and the external part of the lesion, and asymmetries were assessed on 604 melanocytic lesion images in our image database.

Automated extraction and description of dark areas in surface microscopy melanocytic lesion images.

Background: Identification of dark areas inside a melanocytic lesion (ML) is of great importance for melanoma diagnosis, both during clinical examination and employing programs for automated image analysis.

Objective: The aim of our study was to compare two different methods for the automated identification and description of dark areas in epiluminescence microscopy images of MLs and to evaluate their diagnostic capability.

Methods: Two methods for the automated extraction of 'absolute' (ADAs) and 'relative' dark areas (RDAs) and a set of parameters for their description were developed and tested on 339 images of MLs acquired by means of a polarized-light videomicroscope.