The Prevalence of Amnestic and Non-Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment and Its Association with Different Lifestyle Factors in a South Italian Elderly Population.

Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a transition stage between normal aging and dementia and can be useful to monitor the cognitive status of people at risk of dementias. Our aims were to investigate the prevalence of amnestic and non-amnestic MCI in a South Italian elderly population, and to identify socio-demographic, clinical and lifestyle factors associated with MCI. A cross-sectional retrospective population study on 839 community-dwelling participants over 60 years of age was carried out.

The impact of lymphovascular invasion in patients treated with radical nephroureterectomy for upper tract urothelial carcinoma: An extensive updated systematic review and meta-analysis.

Patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) often have a delayed diagnosis and by then, present with advanced disease which has been shown to be associated with lymphovascular invasion (LVI). It has been suggested to be involved in the metastatic cascade of the disease. In this review, we provide an extensive up-to-date summary of the current knowledge about the prognostic impact of LVI in patients undergoing radical nephroureterectomy (RNU).

Prediction of significant renal function decline after open, laparoscopic, and robotic partial nephrectomy: External validation of the Martini's nomogram on the RECORD2 project cohort.

Objectives: Martini et al. developed a nomogram to predict significant (>25%) renal function loss after robot-assisted partial nephrectomy and identified four risk categories. We aimed to externally validate Martini's nomogram on a large, national, multi-institutional data set including open, laparoscopic, and robot-assisted partial nephrectomy.

University Students' Online Learning During COVID-19: The Role of Grit in Academic Performance.

The governmental restriction due to COVID-19 pandemic led to Italian Universities moving teaching from face-to-face, to online. This represented an unexpected transition from traditional learning to what can be considered "e-learning." This, together with the psychological distress that may be associated with the experience of lockdown, might have affected students' performance.

Compared Efficacy of Adjuvant Intravesical BCG-TICE vs. BCG-RIVM for High-Risk Non-Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer (NMIBC): A Propensity Score Matched Analysis.

Background: Intravesical immunotherapy with bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) is the standard therapy for high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). The superiority of any BCG strain over another could not be demonstrated yet.

Methods: Patients with NMIBCs underwent adjuvant induction ± maintenance schedule of intravesical immunotherapy with either BCG TICE or RIVM at two high-volume tertiary institutions.

A metafrontier approach and fractional regression model to analyze the environmental efficiency of alternative tillage practices for wheat in Bangladesh.

Among alternative tillage practices, conservation tillage (CT) is a prominent greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation strategy advocated in wheat cultivation, largely because of its low energy consumption and minimum soil disturbance during cultural operations. This paper examines the agricultural production and GHG emission trade-off of CT vis-à-vis traditional tillage (TT) on wheat farms of Bangladesh. Using a directional distance function approach, the maximum reduction in GHG emissions was searched for within all available tillage technology options, while increasing wheat production as much as possible.

Biologic and targeted therapeutics in vitiligo.

Background: Vitiligo is a long-standing progressive autoimmune disease with depigmented macules/patches with significant psychological morbidity to the patients. From being one of the most poorly understood diseases in the past, there has been a rampant advance in determining the molecular and genetic factors influencing the disease process. More light has been shed on the complex intracellular environment and interplay between innate and adaptive immunity.

Restaging transurethral resection in ta high-grade nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer: a systematic review.

Purpose Of Review: The role of a re-transurethral resection (TUR) is clearly demonstrated in T1 high-grade nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer. However, its role remains controversial for Ta high-risk tumors and the recent European guidelines stated that the second look procedure could be avoided for these patients despite harboring a high-risk of both disease recurrence and progression. We aimed to evaluate the added benefit on staging, response to bacillus Calmette-Guérin and oncological outcomes of re-TUR in patients with Ta high-grade nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer.

The Impact of SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic on Time to Primary, Secondary Resection and Adjuvant Intravesical Therapy in Patients with High-Risk Non-Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer: A Retrospective Multi-Institutional Cohort Analysis.

Background: To investigate the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on the diagnosis and treatment of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).

Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed using an Italian multi-institutional database of TURBT patients with high-risk urothelial NMIBC between January 2019 and February 2021, followed by Re-TURBT and/or adjuvant intravesical BCG.

Results: A total of 2591 patients from 27 institutions with primary TURBT were included.

Diagnostic Accuracy of Novel Urinary Biomarker Tests in Non-muscle-invasive Bladder Cancer: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis.

Context: During the past decade, several urinary biomarker tests (UBTs) for bladder cancer have been developed and made commercially available. However, none of these is recommended by international guidelines so far.

Objective: To assess the diagnostic estimates of novel commercially available UBTs for diagnosis and surveillance of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) using diagnostic test accuracy (DTA) and network meta-analysis (NMA).

Forgiveness in the Modulation of Responsibility in a Sample of Italian Adolescents with a Tendency towards Conduct or Obsessive-Compulsive Problems.

Although obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and the conduct disorders (CD) express a contrasting symptomatology, they could represent different answers to a common matrix about morality. In the literature, some theoretical models describe people with OCD as individuals who experience high levels of responsibility and guilt. On the other hand, adolescents with a CD are described as if they do not feel guilty at all or consider anti-social purposes as more important than existing moral purposes.

A Drive towards Thermodynamic Efficiency for Dissipative Structures in Chemical Reaction Networks.

Dissipative accounts of structure formation show that the self-organisation of complex structures is thermodynamically favoured, whenever these structures dissipate free energy that could not be accessed otherwise. These structures therefore open transition channels for the state of the universe to move from a frustrated, metastable state to another metastable state of higher entropy. However, these accounts apply as well to relatively simple, dissipative systems, such as convection cells, hurricanes, candle flames, lightning strikes, or mechanical cracks, as they do to complex biological systems.

A Nomogram for the Prediction of Intermediate Significant Renal Function Loss After Robot-assisted Partial Nephrectomy for Localized Renal Tumors: A Prospective Multicenter Observational Study (RECORd2 Project).

Background: Robot-assisted partial nephrectomy (RAPN) is increasingly adopted for the treatment of localized renal tumors; however, rates and predictors of significant renal function (RF) loss after RAPN are still poorly investigated, especially at a long-term evaluation.

Objective: To analyze the predictive factors and develop a clinical nomogram for predicting the likelihood of ultimate RF loss after RAPN.

Design, Setting, And Participants: We prospectively evaluated all patients treated with RAPN in a multicenter series (RECORd2 project).

The Value of Preoperative Plasma VEGF Levels in Urothelial Carcinoma of the Bladder Treated with Radical Cystectomy.

Background: Elevated preoperative plasma levels of the angiogenesis-related marker VEGF have been associated with worse oncological outcomes in various malignancies.

Objective: To investigate the predictive/prognostic role of VEGF in patients with urothelial carcinoma of the bladder (UCB) treated with radical cystectomy (RC).

Design, Setting, And Participants: VEGF plasma levels were measured preoperatively in 1036 patients with UCB who underwent RC.

Drug Prices and Value of Oncology Drugs in Italy.

Objective: The main objective of this study was to evaluate the potential role of efficacy data and other information available at the time of price and reimbursement (P&R) decision-making process within the definition of oncology treatment costs in Italy.

Methods: The study included all P&R dossiers submitted to the Italian Medicines Agency between July 2015 and December 2017. It prospectively collected the data of the P&R process starting from dossier submission up to the Italian Health Service reimbursement decision.

Postoperative Chemotherapy Bladder Instillation After Radical Nephroureterectomy: Results of a European Survey from the Young Academic Urologist Urothelial Cancer Group.

Background: Level 1 evidence supports the administration of single postoperative intravesical chemotherapy (pIVC) following radical nephroureterectomy (RNU) for upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC), in order to decrease intravesical recurrence risk.

Objective: The Young Academic Urologist Urothelial Cancer Group aimed to investigate the use of pIVC in daily practice among European colleagues.

Design Setting And Participants: An online survey was shared with European Association of Urology Section of Oncological Urology (ESOU) 2017 participants via e-mail.

A risk-group classification model in patients with bladder cancer under neoadjuvant cisplatin-based combination chemotherapy.

The objective of the current research was to explore the potential prognostic value of readily available clinical and pathologic variables in bladder cancer. The novel association found between cholesterol levels and prognosis may provide the rationale for exploring novel treatments. Patients included had histologically confirmed urothelial bladder cancer and were treated with at least 3 cycles of cisplatin-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy before radical cystectomy with lymphadenectomy.

Incidence, risk factors and outcomes of urethral recurrence after radical cystectomy for bladder cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

We aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis assessing the incidence and risk factors of urethral recurrence (UR) as well as summarizing data on survival outcomes in patients with UR after radical cystectomy (RC) for bladder cancer. The MEDLINE and EMBASE databases were searched in February 2021 for studies of patients with UR after RC. Incidence and risk factors of UR were the primary endpoints.

Risk factors for residual disease at re-TUR in a large cohort of T1G3 patients.

Introduction And Objectives: The goals of transurethral resection of a bladder tumor (TUR) are to completely resect the lesions and to make a correct diagnosis in order to adequately stage the patient. It is well known that the presence of detrusor muscle in the specimen is a prerequisite to minimize the risk of under staging. Persistent disease after resection of bladder tumors is not uncommon and is the reason why the European Guidelines recommended a re-TUR for all T1 tumors.

Accuracy of Frozen Section Analysis of Urethral and Ureteral Margins During Radical Cystectomy for Bladder Cancer: A Systematic Review and Diagnostic Meta-Analysis.

Context: The question of the ability of frozen section analysis (FSA) to accurately detect malignant pathology intraoperatively has been discussed for many decades.

Objective: We aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis assessing the diagnostic estimates of FSA of the urethral and ureteral margins in patients treated with radical cystectomy (RC) for bladder cancer (BCa).

Evidence Acquisition: The MEDLINE and EMBASE databases were searched in February 2021 for studies analyzing the association between FSA and the final urethral and ureteral margin status in patients treated with RC for BCa.

Current application of the enhanced recovery after surgery protocol for patients undergoing radical cystectomy: lessons learned from European excellence centers.

Purpose: There is no consensus on which items of Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) should and should not be implemented in radical cystectomy (RC). The aim of this study is to report current practices across European high-volume RC centers involved in ERAS.

Methods: Based on the recommendations of the ERAS society, we developed a survey with 17 questions that were validated by the Young Academic Urologists-urothelial group.